Chinese scientists discovered the world's oldest short-tailed bird fossils on Thursday that date back to 150 million years ago in eastern China, according to the Xinhua News Agency.
The study suggests that the discovery challenges the previously accepted timeline for the appearance of birds, pushing the species' emergence back to between 172 million and 164 million years ago.
The Baminornis zhenghensis fossils were unearthed in the eastern Chinese county of Zhenghe in Fujian Province.
The bird species showcase a modern bird's compound bone, the pygostyle, suggesting that the body structure of modern birds appeared in the Late Jurassic Period, 20 million years earlier than previously thought.
The fossils showed an unusual combination of traits, including a modern bird-like shoulder and pelvic girdles, as well as a hand resembling that of non-avian dinosaurs said Wang Min, the lead scientist of the research team from the Chinese Academy of Sciences, cited by the news agency.
"This is a ground-breaking discovery. It overturns the previous situation that Archaeopteryx was the only bird found in the Jurassic Period," added Zhou Zhonghe, another academician from the academy.
