Baminornis zhenghensis

[RonO]

https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/scientists-discover-groundbreaking-jurassic-fossil-that-could-overhaul-the-evolutionary-history-of-birds-180986063/

This fossil was discovered in 2023, and seems to have some features that
make it more like modern birds than Archaeopteryx. It is supposed to
have lived around the same time as Archaeopteryx. It looks like the
bones that they have would make a shorter tail, but do they have all the
tail bones. It is difficult to tell from the pictures of the bones, but
the bones that they do show do not have the fragmentary squashed fused
tail like structure of modern birds.

Ron Okimoto

[Kestrel Clayton]

Post by RonO
https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/scientists-discover-
groundbreaking-jurassic-fossil-that-could-overhaul-the-evolutionary-
history-of-birds-180986063/
This fossil was discovered in 2023, and seems to have some features that
make it more like modern birds than Archaeopteryx.  It is supposed to
have lived around the same time as Archaeopteryx.  It looks like the
bones that they have would make a shorter tail, but do they have all the
tail bones.  It is difficult to tell from the pictures of the bones, but
the bones that they do show do not have the fragmentary squashed fused
tail like structure of modern birds.

That's very interesting. Am I wrong for thinking this may imply the
ancestry of early birds, much like early Homo, is a lot "bushier" than
previously believed?

[RonO]

Post by Kestrel Clayton

Post by RonO
https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/scientists-discover-
groundbreaking-jurassic-fossil-that-could-overhaul-the-evolutionary-
history-of-birds-180986063/
This fossil was discovered in 2023, and seems to have some features
that make it more like modern birds than Archaeopteryx.  It is
supposed to have lived around the same time as Archaeopteryx.  It
looks like the bones that they have would make a shorter tail, but do
they have all the tail bones.  It is difficult to tell from the
pictures of the bones, but the bones that they do show do not have the
fragmentary squashed fused tail like structure of modern birds.

That's very interesting. Am I wrong for thinking this may imply the
ancestry of early birds, much like early Homo, is a lot "bushier" than
previously believed?

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/chinese-fossil-jurassic-bird-rewrites-history-avian-evolution-rcna191980

This news article notes that it has been an issue for quite some time
that no other bird like fossils have been identified that existed with
early Archaeopteryx. It sounds like everyone expected to find more
species, but they just never have.

Ron Okimoto