Scientists: Bird's Ancestors Likely Not Dinosaurs

A fossil found in Inner Mongolia may prove that birds did not evolve from dinosaurs, as many scientists have believed, but from a creature that existed long before. The Scansoriopteryx, meaning ‘climbing wing,’ could prune the avian evolutionary tree. Alan Feduccia, biology professor at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, studied the Scansoriopteryx fossil. What he found was something more birdlike than dinosaur-like. "It’s just not a dinosaur. In other words,...

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