Earliest short-tailed bird from the Late Jurassic of China

Runsheng Chen, Min Wang (), Liping Dong, Guowu Zhou, Xing Xu, Ke Deng, Liming Xu, Chi Zhang, Linchang Wang, Honggang Du, Ganmin Lin, Min Lin and Zhonghe Zhou
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Runsheng Chen: Fujian Institute of Geological Survey
Min Wang: Chinese Academy of Sciences
Liping Dong: Chinese Academy of Sciences
Guowu Zhou: Fujian Institute of Geological Survey
Xing Xu: Chinese Academy of Sciences
Ke Deng: Fujian Institute of Geological Survey
Liming Xu: Fujian Institute of Geological Survey
Chi Zhang: Chinese Academy of Sciences
Linchang Wang: Fujian Institute of Geological Survey
Honggang Du: Fujian Institute of Geological Survey
Ganmin Lin: Fujian Institute of Geological Survey
Min Lin: Fujian Institute of Geological Survey
Zhonghe Zhou: Chinese Academy of Sciences

Nature, 2025, vol. 638, issue 8050, 441-448

Abstract: Abstract Recent macroevolutionary studies predict a diversification of early birds during the Jurassic period1–4, 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 tail9–11. This is in stark contrast to most Cretaceous and crownward taxa, which have a short tail that terminates in a compound bone called the pygostyle12–14. 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.

Date: 2025
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DOI: 10.1038/s41586-024-08410-z

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