World's Oldest Bird Fossil Discovered in China, Links Dinosaurs to Modern Birds

A new fossil discovered in China is believed to be the oldest known bird, replacing the previous record holder: Archaeopteryx. The new fossil, from a new species called Aurornis xui, is believed to have lived hundreds of millions of years ago when certain species of dinosaurs began to evolve into more bird-like species. Andrea Cau, co-author of the article about Aurornis xui and a vertebrate paleontologist at the Museo Geologico Giovanni Capellini in Italy, had this to say about the discovery to Discovery News:

"Our analyses indicate it as the most primitive bird known...It was a small feathered dinosaur that lived in what is now China about 160 million years ago. It looked like a ground bird, but with a long tail, clawed hands and toothed jaws."

Scientist have been looking for a link between dinosaurs and birds, and now with the discovery of Aurornis xui they have a better grasp of when dinosaurs began to shift into more avian species, until they evolved into the modern birds of today. Aurornis xui's name comes from the combination the Latin word for "daybreak", Aurora, the Greek word for bird, "Ornis" and Xu Xing, a famous chinese paleontologist. 

"This is a very exciting new find from the pre-Archaeopteryx Tiaojishan Formation of China, and it appears to stabilize the phylogenetic tree," says Paleontologist Michael Benton from the University of Bristol. Earlier suggestions of a more complex pattern of origin of birds were admittedly not robust, and the uncertainty in resolution was more statistical than real...It's interesting to see that the new specimen, Aurornis, can stabilize the result. The specimen is very good, complete, and shows a great deal of anatomical information.The new Chinese fossils confirm the classic pattern of relationships, with a tight sequence of fossils documenting the transition from dinosaur to bird."

The study was originally published in the journal Nature.