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A Jurassic avialan dinosaur from China resolves the early phylogenetic history of birds

Naturevolume 498, pages359–362 (2013)Cite this article

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Abstract

The recent discovery of small paravian theropod dinosaurs with well-preserved feathers in the Middle–Late Jurassic Tiaojishan Formation of Liaoning Province (northeastern China)1,2,3,4 has challenged the pivotal position ofArchaeopteryx3,4, regarded from its discovery to be the most basal bird. RemovingArchaeopteryx from the base of Avialae to nest within Deinonychosauria implies that typical bird flight, powered by the forelimbs only, either evolved at least twice, or was subsequently lost or modified in some deinonychosaurians3,5. Here we describe the complete skeleton of a new paravian from the Tiaojishan Formation of Liaoning Province, China. Including this new taxon in a comprehensive phylogenetic analysis for basal Paraves does the following: (1) it recovers it as the basal-most avialan; (2) it confirms the avialan status ofArchaeopteryx; (3) it places Troodontidae as the sister-group to Avialae; (4) it supports a single origin of powered flight within Paraves; and (5) it implies that the early diversification of Paraves and Avialae took place in the Middle–Late Jurassic period.

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Figure 1:Aurornis xui YFGP-T5198.
Figure 2: Selected skeletal elements ofAurornis xui YFGP-T5198.
Figure 3: Phylogenetic relationships ofAurornis xui among coelurosaurian theropods.

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Acknowledgements

We thank B. Pohl for making fossils available for study, S. Ge for help and comments on the manuscript and T. Hubin for photographs. This study was supported by a grant (BL/36/62) to P.G. from the SPP Politique scientifique (Belgium). D.H. was supported by the Key Laboratory of Evolutionary Systematics of Vertebrates (CAS2011LESV011) and by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (41172026).

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Operational Direction ‘Earth and History of Life’, Royal Belgian Institute of Natural Sciences, rue Vautier 29, 1000 Bruxelles, Belgium,

    Pascal Godefroit

  2. Museo Geologico ‘Giovanni Capellini’, Via Zamboni 63, I- 40127 Bologna, Italy,

    Andrea Cau

  3. Paleontological Institute, Shenyang Normal University, 253 North Huanghe Street, Shenyang 110034, China,

    Hu Dong-Yu

  4. Key Laboratory of Vegetation Ecology, Ministry of Education, Northeast Normal University, 5268 Renmin Street, Changchun 130024, China,

    Hu Dong-Yu

  5. Eldonia, 9 Avenue des Portes Occitanes, 3800 Gannat, France,

    François Escuillié

  6. Research Center of Paleontology and Stratigraphy, Jilin University, 938 Ximinzhu Street, Changchun, 130021, China,

    Wu Wenhao

  7. Ocean and Earth Science, National Oceanography Centre, University of Southampton, European Way, Southampton SO14 3ZH, UK,

    Gareth Dyke

Authors
  1. Pascal Godefroit

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  2. Andrea Cau

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  3. Hu Dong-Yu

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  4. François Escuillié

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  5. Wu Wenhao

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  6. Gareth Dyke

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Contributions

P.G., F.E., A.C. and W.W. designed the project. P.G., A.C., G.D. and H.D.-Y. performed the research. P.G., A.C. and G.D. wrote the manuscript.

Corresponding author

Correspondence toPascal Godefroit.

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The authors declare no competing financial interests.

Supplementary information

Supplementary Information

This file contains Supplementary Figures 1-8, Supplementary Tables 1-2, Supplementary Text (including Origin and age of YTGP-T5198, differential diagnosis ofAurornis xui gen. et sp. nov., details of phylogenetic analysis, alternative topologies from constraint analyses andA posteriori character weighting analyses), a character list, Nexus file data and Supplementary References. (PDF 2496 kb)

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Godefroit, P., Cau, A., Dong-Yu, H.et al. A Jurassic avialan dinosaur from China resolves the early phylogenetic history of birds.Nature498, 359–362 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1038/nature12168

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Editorial Summary

Archaeopteryx back on its perch

Discoveries of feathered theropod dinosaurs in China during the past two decades have prompted dramatic revisions of our ideas of the evolution of birds and the origins of flight — including the suggestion that the iconic fossilArchaeopteryx might have lain some distance from the ancestry of modern birds. NowArchaeopteryx is back on its perch with the discovery of yet another bird-like dinosaur, from the Tiaojishan Formation (Middle–Late Jurassic) of Liaoning Province, China. A new phylogenetic analysis restoresArchaeopteryx as an early diverging avialan and realigns Troodontidae as the sister-group for Avialae. These results are consistent with early diversification of birds in Asia during the Middle–Late Jurassic, and a single origin for avian forelimb-powered flapping flight.

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