An Archaeopteryx-like theropod from China and the origin of Avialae

Archaeopteryx is widely accepted as being the most basal bird, and accordingly it is regarded as central to understanding avialan origins; however, recent discoveries of derived maniraptorans have weakened the avialan status of Archaeopteryx . Here we report a new Archaeopteryx -like theropod from C...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Nature (London) 2011-07, Vol.475 (7357), p.465-470
Main Authors: Xu, Xing, You, Hailu, Du, Kai, Han, Fenglu
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
631/181/757
Animals
Birds
China
Dinosaurs - anatomy & histology
Dinosaurs - classification
Earth sciences
Earth, ocean, space
Exact sciences and technology
Fossils
Humanities and Social Sciences
multidisciplinary
Museums
Paleontology
Phylogenetics
Science
Science (multidisciplinary)
Species Specificity
Vertebrae
Vertebrate paleontology
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Summary:Archaeopteryx is widely accepted as being the most basal bird, and accordingly it is regarded as central to understanding avialan origins; however, recent discoveries of derived maniraptorans have weakened the avialan status of Archaeopteryx . Here we report a new Archaeopteryx -like theropod from China. This find further demonstrates that many features formerly regarded as being diagnostic of Avialae, including long and robust forelimbs, actually characterize the more inclusive group Paraves (composed of the avialans and the deinonychosaurs). Notably, adding the new taxon into a comprehensive phylogenetic analysis shifts Archaeopteryx to the Deinonychosauria. Despite only tentative statistical support, this result challenges the centrality of Archaeopteryx in the transition to birds. If this new phylogenetic hypothesis can be confirmed by further investigation, current assumptions regarding the avialan ancestral condition will need to be re-evaluated. Has Archaeopteryx fallen off its perch? When is a bird not a bird? When it's Archaeopteryx . In the 150th anniversary of its discovery, the position of Archaeopteryx as the earliest-known bird has been weakened thanks to the discovery of increasing numbers of feathered, bird-like dinosaurs over the past decade and a half. The discovery of another bird-like dinosaur, described by Xu Xing and colleagues, might be the last straw. Although the analysis is tentative, the report suggests that we are about to enter a new era in which Archaeopteryx is considered as distant from the ancestry of modern birds as dinosaurs such as Deinonychus .
ISSN:0028-0836
1476-4687
DOI:10.1038/nature10288