The Oldest Short-Tailed Bird Fossil Discovered - China

Chen Runsheng, a professor-level senior engineer of Fujian Institute of Geological Survey (FIGS), checks a sample under microscope at a laboratory of FIGS, in Fuzhou, southeast China's Fujian Province, on February 11, 2025. Chinese scientists have unearthed the oldest short-tailed bird fossil, dating back about 150 million years, in east China's Fujian Province. This suggests that birds might have originated earlier than previously thought. The fossilized bird Baminornis zhenghensis was discovered in Zhenghe County, Fujian Province. Its short tail ends in a compound bone called the pygostyle, a feature uniquely present in modern birds. This indicates that the body structure of modern birds emerged in the Late Jurassic Period, 20 million years earlier than previously known. The study, conducted by researchers from the Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology (IVPP) and the FIGS, was published in the latest issue of the journal Nature, on February 11, 2025,in Beijing, China. Photo by Jiang Keh