Britain's Natural History Museum is sending its most precious fossil, a 147 million-year-old skeleton that established the link between dinosaurs and birds, abroad for the first time.
Archaeology
Mar 8, 2017
0
5
Fossils of the oldest member of the lineage to which today's birds belong has been found in Hebei province of Northern China. The discovery pushes back the evolutionary record for birds by nearly 6m years and challenges the ...
Archaeology
May 7, 2015
2
50
The asymmetrical flight feathers of their wings are among the most distinctive features of living birds. But how are these feathers actually constructed, and when did they first appear in evolutionary history?
Evolution
Feb 16, 2015
3
121
Reconstructing ancient life has long required a certain degree of imagination. This is especially true when considering the coloration of long-extinct organisms. However, new methods of investigation are being incorporated ...
Archaeology
Nov 5, 2014
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0
The origin of feathers and the origin of flight have been a contentious chicken-and-egg issue in the scientific world for decades. Did feathers develop as a flight mechanism - or were they first used for other purposes?
Archaeology
Jul 2, 2014
4
1
Mark Puttick and colleagues investigated the rates of evolution of the two key characteristics that preceded flight: body size and forelimb length. In order to fly, hulking meat-eating dinosaurs had to shrink in size and ...
Archaeology
Feb 23, 2014
2
0
In most tetrapods (land vertebrates) the fourth (ring) finger is the first to develop in the embryo. And in birds, the finger on the outside of the hand (posterior, the pinky side) appears first, which suggests that this ...
Plants & Animals
Jan 7, 2014
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0
New research provides evidence that dinosaurs evolved the brainpower necessary for flight well before they actually took to the air as birds. Based on high-resolution X-ray computed tomographic (CT) scans, the study, published ...
Archaeology
Jul 31, 2013
2
0
(Phys.org) —The findings came from X-ray experiments by a team from The University of Manchester, working with colleagues at the US Department of Energy's (DOE) SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory. The scientists were ...
Archaeology
Jun 11, 2013
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0
Venerated for 150 years as the forebear of all birds until being relegated two years ago to the common class of winged dinosaurs, the Archaeopteryx was restored to its hallowed branch on the tree of life on Wednesday.
Archaeology
May 29, 2013
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