For more news visit ☛ http://english.ntdtv.com<br />Follow us on Twitter ☛ http://twitter.com/NTDTelevision<br />Follow us on Facebook ☛ http://facebook.com/NTDTelevision<br /><br />Scientists have long believed that birds evolved from the dinosaur. But a new fossil discovered in China is changing this theory. Let's take a look.<br /><br />In China’s Liaoning Province, a new fossil called the Xiaotingia was recently unearthed. The 155 million-year-old chicken-sized fossil is challenging scientists’ traditional belief in the evolution of birds.<br /><br />The Archaeopteryx, discovered 150 years ago, was believed to be the first evolutionary link between dinosaurs and birds.<br /><br />However, with this latest discovery, the Archaeopteryx may now be nothing more than a feathery dinosaur, and not, as scientists have long believed, to be the first bird.<br /><br />The new fossil, Xiaotingia, and the Archaeopteryx share remarkable resemblances. However, the two fossils are closer to the group of bird-like dinosaurs rather than dinosaur-like birds.<br /><br />[Professor Xing Xu, Paleontologist, Chinese Academy of Sciences]: (male, mandarin)<br />"We finally reached the conclusion that Archaeopteryx and Xiaotingia zhengi belong to the same family, and they should be put under the group of Deinonychosauria, not at the root of birds."<br /><br />The Archaeopteryx was hailed to be the missing evolutionary link between bird and dinosaurs since its discovery in 1861. With this new find, that link becomes a mystery once again.
