Fossils of 'Early Modern Bird' Reveal It Existed Before the Asteroid Strike That Likely Wiped Out the Dinosaurs When a massive asteroid struck our planet about 66 million years ago, 75% of our planet's flora and fauna perished due to the impact.

Digital reconstruction of the Late Cretaceous (~69 million years old) crown bird Vegavis iaai that was completed following high-resolution micro-computed tomography of a fossil-bearing concretion discovered on Vega Island, Antarctic Peninsula. Credit: Joseph Groenke (Ohio University) and Christopher Torres (University of the Pacific), 2025.

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 research.

Researchers have discovered a 149-million-year-old bird fossil in southeastern China, featuring a short tail structure that could rewrite the evolutionary history of birds. As detailed in a study published Wednesday in the journal Nature,

The bird has a short tail ending in a pygostyle, an important aerodynamic innovation moving the center of mass forward toward the wings.

Baminornis is a landmark discovery and ranks among the most important bird fossils unearthed since the discovery

The short-tailed find with the forelimb of a raptor is an extremely rare example of the transition from dinosaurs to birds Chinese palaeontologists have found what could be the world's oldest bird fossil,