Feathers fly in first bird debate A chicken-sized dinosaur
fossil found in China may have overturned a long-held theory
about the origin of birds. For 150 years, a species called
Archaeopteryx has been regarded as the first true bird,
representing a major evolutionary step away from dinosaurs. But
the new fossil suggests this creature was just another feathery
dinosaur and not the significant link that palaeontologists had
believed. The discovery of Xiaotingia, as it is known, is
reported in Nature magazine. The authors of the report argue
that three other species named in the past decade might now be
serious contenders for the title of "the oldest bird".
Archaeopteryx has a hallowed place in science, long hailed as
not just the first bird but as one of the clearest examples of
evolution in action. Discovered in Bavaria in 1861 just two
years after the publication of Darwin's Origin of Species, the
fossil seemed to blend attributes of both reptiles and birds and
was quickly accepted as the "original bird". Bu