150-million-year-old bird had tiny wings and dinosaur-like teeth

An almost complete fossil unearthed in China reveals a 150-million-year-old bird that weighed around 800 grams. For millions of years, the evolution of flight has been the story of birds. But a remarkable fossil from southeastern China suggests some of the earliest birds may have preferred to keep their feet on the ground. The new species lived about 150 million years ago, and had surprisingly small wings for a bird, sharp teeth, and a powerful claw that would have made it well suited for life as a terrestrial hunter, according to an online report by Reuters.A bird that may have preferred to runThe crow-sized species, named Yuezhuornis yangyuanensis, lived during the Jurassic Period and is among the earliest-known birds, Reuters reported. The find gives us a new look at how feathered dinosaurs gave rise to the birds we see today, suggesting that early members of the bird lineage might have experimented with a variety of ways to move around and survive.The fossil, which is almost complete, was discovered in Fujian Province in south-eastern China. The animal is thought to have weighed about 800 grams, or 1.8 pounds. It had fully developed wings but the size of the wings compared to t...