Some Jurassic period birds were flightless

October 14, 2026 · 3:00 pm 3 sources

Image: Nature

Coverage

Wires & papers of record

• Some Jurassic period birds were flightless
  Nature · October 14, 2026 00:00
  Nature, Published online: 14 October 2026; doi:10.1038/d41586-026-02645-8 The fossil discovery of an early avian ancestor in China reveals that flightless birds lived alongside the known flying species.
• Jurassic flightless bird reveals early ecological diversity of avialans
  Nature · October 14, 2026 00:00
  Nature, Published online: 14 October 2026; doi:10.1038/s41586-026-10972-z A fossil bird from the Upper Jurassic Zhenghe Fauna of southeastern China contemporary with Archaeopteryx and that clearly could not fly sheds new light on the ecological diversification of early-diverging avialans.

More coverage

• Not all early birds evolved toward better flight, Jurassic fossil suggests
  Phys.org · October 14, 2026 15:00
  For early birds, evolution wasn't always about becoming better flyers. This conclusion is supported by the recent discovery of a remarkably well-preserved, 150-million-year-old bird fossil from Fujian province, China, which is challenging long-held assumptions about early bird evolution.