Earliest short-tailed bird from the Late Jurassic of China – Nature.com
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volume 638, pages 441–448 (2025)Cite this article
485 Accesses533 AltmetricMetrics detailsRecent macroevolutionary studies predict a diversification of early birds during the Jurassic period1,2,3,4, but the unquestionable Jurassic bird fossil record is limited to Archaeopteryx1,5,6, which has also been referred to deinonychosaurian dinosaurs by some analyses7,8. Although they have feathered wings, the known Jurassic birds are more similar to non-avialan theropods in having the ancestral long reptilian tail9,10,11. This is in stark contrast to most Cretaceous and crownward taxa, which have a short tail that terminates in a compound bone called the pygostyle12,13,14. Here we report on the oldest short-tailed avialan, Baminornis zhenghensis gen. et sp. nov., from the recently discovered Late Jurassic Zhenghe Fauna15, which fills a noticeable spatio-temporal gap in the earliest branching avialan fossil record. B. zhenghensis exhibits a unique combination of derived ornithothoracine-like pectoral and pelvic girdles and plesiomorphic non-avialan maniraptoran hand, demonstrating mosaic evolution along stem avialan line. An avialan furcula collected from the same locality is referrable to ornithuromorphs on the basis of our morphometric and phylogenetic analyses. These newly discovered fossils demonstrate the early appearance of highly derived bird features, and together with an anchiornithine fossil from the same locality, they suggest an earlier origin of birds and a radiation of early birds in the Jurassic.This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution
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We are sorry, but there is no personal subscription option available for your country.Buy this articlePrices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkoutThe specimens (IVPP V33259 and V33260) described in this study are archived and available on request from the Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China. All data, including the measurements, and phylogenetic matrix that support the findings of this research are included as Supplementary Information. Raw data used in phylogenetic and morphometric analyses are available at Figshare (https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.25918291)78. The Life Science Identifier for Baminornis zhenghensis is urn:lsid:zoobank.org:act:FE0EA078-DE38-4EAE-9517-8BFBA6288B0F.The MrBayes commands, R code, and raw data used in phylogenetic and morphometric analyses are available at Figshare (https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.25918291 (ref. 78)).Rauhut, O. W. M. & Foth, C. in The Evolution of Feathers: From Their Origin to the Present (eds Foth, C. & Rauhut, O. W. M.) 27–45 (Springer, 2020).Lloyd, G. T., Bapst, D. W., Friedman, M. & Davis, K. E. Probabilistic divergence time estimation without branch lengths: dating the origins of dinosaurs, avian flight and crown birds. Biol. Lett. 12, 20160609 (2016).Article
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Chen, R. et al. Raw data, codes that are used to reproduce the results in “Earliest short-tailed bird from the Late Jurassic of China”. Figshare https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.25918291 (2024).Campbell, K. E. The manus of archaeopterygians: implication for avian ancestry. Oryctos 7, 13–26 (2008).Download referencesThe authors thank W.-Q. Feng, Y. Li, S. Miao, J.-T. Feng, X. Lin and J.-L. Zhang for helping in fieldwork; Y. Li for specimen preparation; W. Gao for photography; and S. Miao and J.-T. Feng for laser-stimulated fluorescence photography. This research is supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (42225201 and 42288201), the Key Research Program of Frontier Sciences, CAS (ZDBS-LY-DQC002), the New Cornerstone Science Foundation through the XPLORER PRIZE, the Investigation of the Geological Relics and Fossil Resources of the Late Mesozoic basins in western Fujian (Fujian Provincial Department of Natural Resources, GY20220108), the Survey, excavation and research of palaeontological resources in Daxi Village, Zhenghe County, scientific research project of Fujian Provincial Geological Bureau, and the Investigation of protection status and evaluation of key palaeontological fossil producing areas in Fujian (Fujian Provincial Department of Natural Resources, [350001]FJGC[GK]2023036).These authors contributed equally: Runsheng Chen, Min WangFujian Institute of Geological Survey, Fuzhou, ChinaRunsheng Chen, Guowu Zhou, Ke Deng, Liming Xu, Linchang Wang, Honggang Du, Ganmin Lin & Min LinKey Laboratory of Vertebrate Evolution and Human Origins, Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, ChinaMin Wang, Liping Dong, Xing Xu, Chi Zhang & Zhonghe ZhouYou can also search for this author in
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PubMed Google ScholarM.W. designed the project. M.W., R.C. and L.X. supervised the fieldwork. All authors participated in the fieldwork. M.W. performed the phylogenetic and morphometric analyses. M.W. and C.Z. performed the tip-dating analyses. M.W., X.X. and Z.Z. wrote the manuscript with input from all of the authors.Correspondence to
Min Wang.The authors declare no competing interests.Nature thanks Stephen Brusatte, Daniel Field, Fernando Novas and Patrick O’Connor for their contribution to the peer review of this work.Publisher’s note Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.a,b, Photograph (a) and line drawing (b) of B. zhenghensis (IVPP V33259). c, Non-ornithothoracine pygostylian Confuciusornis (IVPP V16066). d, Non-ornithothoracine pygostylian Jinguofortis (IVPP V24194). e, Avialan Jeholornis (IVPP V13353). f, Enantiornithine Parabohaiornis (IVPP V18690). g, Enantiornithine Pterygornis (IVPP V20729). h, Ornithuromorph Abitusavis (IVPP V14606). i, Ornithuromorph Bellulornis (IVPP V17970). pvp, proximoventral process. Scale bars, 5 mm (a,c,d,f–i), 20 mm (e). Line drawing is not to scale.a–h, Reconstruction of pectoral girdle in dorsal/ventral aspect: B. zhenghensis (a), Archaeopteryx (b), Anchiornis (c), Jeholornis (d), Confuciusornis (e), Sapeornis (f), Longusunguis (g), Abitusavis (h). ac, acromion process; co, coracoid; fu, furcula; hp, hypocleidium; pr, procoracoid process; sc, scapula; sco, scapulocoracoid. Line drawings are not to scale.a–f, Reconstruction of left manus in dorsal view: B. zhenghensis (a), Archaeopteryx (b; modified from ref. 79), Anchiornis (c; modified from9), Fujianvenator (d), Jeholornis (e), and Confuciusornis (f). cam, carpometacarpal; cp III, carpal III; mc I to mc III, metacarpal I to III; pI-1 to pI-2, manual phalanx I-1 and I-2; pII-1 to pII-3, manual phalanx II-1 to II-3; pIII-1 to pIII-4, manual phalanx III-1 to III-4; sc, semilunate carpal. Line drawings are not to scale. Phalanges II-1 and II-3 of B. zhenghensis are not completely preserved (colored in shadow).a,b, Photograph of ilium (a), and pubes and ischium of B. zhenghensis (b). c–j, Reconstruction of pelvic girdle in lateral view: B. zhenghensis (c), Fujianvenator (d; modified from15), Archaeopteryx (e; modified from7), Anchiornis (f; modified from7), Jeholornis (g), Confuciusornis (h), Sapeornis (i), and Yuanchuavis (j). The blue arrowheads (in g–i) denote the posterior proximal process (prp), the orange arrowhead (in e) indicates the posterior distal process (pdp), and the purple arrowheads (in e and f) denote the obturator process (ob). il, ilium; is, ischium; po, postacetabular process; pr, preacetabular process; pu, pubis. Scale bars, 5 mm (a,b). Line drawings are not to scale.a, Scheme of landmarks (four landmarks colored in red) and semi-landmarks (yellow dots) placement. b,c, Furcula morphospace of selected Mesozoic pennaraptoran theropods based on the first three principal components (PCs) derived from landmark-based geometric morphometric analysis, with deformation grids and wireframes from average to extreme along PC 1. n = 24 independent taxa compared with IVPP V33260.The cladogram is the strict consensus tree based on phylogenetic analysis using the modified Theropod Working Group matrix under maximum parsimony. The absolute bootstrap and Bremer support indices are indicated in normal and bold italic formats, respectively. The parsimony-based ancestral state reconstruction shows that the formation of the pygostyle appeared equally possible from the most recent common ancestor of Baminornis onwards and Sapeornis onwards.The tree is the 50% majority-consensus derived from the posterior trees of Bayesian tip-dating analysis using the fossilized birth-death model performed on the Theropod Working Group matrix. The shaded circles at the nodes denote the posterior probability of the clade, and the error bars represent the 95% highest posterior density intervals.The cladogram is the strict consensus tree based on phylogenetic analysis using the modified Mesozoic Avian Phylogeny matrix under maximum parsimony. The absolute bootstrap and Bremer support indices are indicated in normal and bold italic formats, respectively.a,b, Discrete character morphospace based on the first three principal coordinate axes (Pcoa) derived from the complete Theropod Working Group matrix. c–e, Discrete character morphospace built from Pcoa 1 and 3 of shoulder (c), pelvis (d), and manus characters (e) extracted from the Theropod Working Group matrix.This file contains Supplementary Figs. 1–5, Tables 1–4 and references.Springer Nature or its licensor (e.g. a society or other partner) holds exclusive rights to this article under a publishing agreement with the author(s) or other rightsholder(s); author self-archiving of the accepted manuscript version of this article is solely governed by the terms of such publishing agreement and applicable law.Reprints and permissionsChen, R., Wang, M., Dong, L. et al. Earliest short-tailed bird from the Late Jurassic of China.
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