The study of the origin and early evolution of birds has never produced as much excitement
and public attention as in the past decade. Well preserved and abundant new fossils of birds�…

With only one known exception, early Cretaceous birds were smaller than their closest
theropod dinosaur relatives. Here we report on a new bird from the Early Cretaceous�…

Until recently, the origin of birds was one of the great mysteries of biology. Birds are
dramatically different from all other living creatures. Feathers, toothless beaks, hollow bones�…

Birds evolved from and are phylogenetically recognized as members of the theropod
dinosaurs; their first known member is the Late Jurassic Archaeopteryx, now represented by�…

Birds are one of the most recognizable and diverse groups of modern vertebrates. Over the
past two decades, a wealth of new fossil discoveries and phylogenetic and�…

An exploration of all that is known about the origin of birds and of avian flight. It draws on
fossil evidence and studies of the structure and biochemistry of living birds to present�…

Knowledge of the evolutionary history of birds has much improved in recent decades.
Fossils from critical time periods are being described at unprecedented rates and modern�…

Background The origin of birds is one of the most enduring and dramatic evolutionary
debates. The hypothesis that the primarily small-sized birds are nested within a theropod�…

A recent paper published in Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution raises an important
issue in systematic biology, especially in avian systematics. Increasing numbers of avian�…

Living Dinosaurs offers a snapshot of our current understanding of the origin and evolution
of birds. After slumbering for more than a century, avian palaeontology has been awakened�…