Scientists uncovered a 149-million-year-old bird fossil in southeastern China with unexpectedly modern traits they believe could rewrite the evolutionary history of birds. The recently discovered ...

Now, a new fossil discovered in 2011 and analyzed in a recent study published inNature appears to provide the missing link. The well-preserved skull reveals key bird-like features, including a ...

Birds are the only group of dinosaurs that survived the asteroid-induced mass extinction 66 million years ago. But not all the birds alive at the time made it. Why the ancestors of modern birds ...

Modern birds capable of flight all have a specialized wing structure called the propatagium without which they could not fly. The evolutionary origin of this structure has remained a mystery, but ...

A 68-million-year-old skull fossil found in Antarctica has revealed the oldest known modern bird, which was likely related to the waterfowl that live by lakes and oceans today, according to new ...

In modern birds, such behavior helps them to conserve body heat; it likely served a similar purpose for maniraptoran dinosaurs that also curled up at bedtime, according to the study.

A Chicago fossil of Archaeopteryx uncovers unknown features, supporting theories of bird evolution from dinosaurs and highlighting its unique flight adaptations.

The discovery of a remarkably near-complete fossil skull of the earliest known modern bird may help settle a long-standing debate about the evolutionary history of our feathered friends.

Modern birds have asymmetrical feathers on their wings, which help steer the flow of air to generate lift. But Caihong juji had asymmetrical feathers only on its tail.

They found that iridescent, colorful feathers originated 415 times across the bird tree of life, and in most cases, arose outside of the tropics– and that the ancestor of all modern birds likely ...