Fossil of Xiaotingia Zhengi. Photo: XING XU/AFP/Getty Images
Summary
29 July 2011
A tiny dinosaur fossil found in China has overturned a long held scientific theory about the origin of birds.
For 150 years researchers believed that a species called Archaeopteryx was the first bird. But now they are not so sure.
Reporter:
Matt McGrath
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Archaeopteryx has a hallowed place in science, long hailed as not just the first bird but as one of the clearest examples of evolution in action.
But in recent years, doubts have arisen as older fossils with similar bird-like features such as feathers and wishbones were discovered.
Now Chinese researchers believe they have finally knocked Archaeopteryx off its perch. They've discovered another similar species named Xiaotingia which dates back 155 million years to the Jurassic era.
By carefully analysing and comparing the bony bumps and grooves of this new chicken sized fossil with Archaeopteryx, scientists now believe that both are in fact feathery dinosaurs and not birds at all.
Professor Lawrence Witmer from Ohio University, who has written a commentary on the finding, says that the discovery will have huge implications for our understanding of the origins of birds.
Such are the similarities between these transition species of reptiles and birds that scientists involved with this latest finding say that it certainly won't be the end of the argument.
Further discoveries may change and even restore Archaeopteryx to its former glory.
Matt McGrath, 大象传媒
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Vocabulary
- a hallowed place
a very important status
- long hailed as
believed to be for a long time
- fossils
the remains of creatures which have been dead for a very long time and have turned to stone
- wishbones
a v-shape bone in the neck of birds such as chickens and ducks
- perch
a place where a bird rests, such as a branch. Here it is part of an expression "to knock someone off their perch" which means to reduce the status of someone or something
- the Jurassic era
a period in the Earth's history which began approximately 200 million years ago
- feathery
with feathers
- the finding
the conclusions presented by the researchers
- implications for
influence on
- transition species
an animal which represents an evolutionary step between one and another
