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Home > Science Magazine > 29 July 2011 > Balter, 333 (6042): 511

Science
www.sciencemag.org
Science 29 July 2011: Vol. 333 no. 6042 p. 511 DOI: 10.1126/science.333.6042.511 NEWS & ANALYSIS

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PALEONTOLOGY

Bad Birthday News for First Bird?

Michael Balter

The 150-million-year-old Archaeopteryx has long been hailed as the earliest known bird. A team led by one of the world's most successful fossil hunters now says it isn't a bird after all. That claim, published this week in Nature, is based on a new fossil from China. Xiaotingia zhengi looks a lot like Archaeopteryx and is apparently just 10 million years older. But the team argues that both Xiaotingia and Archaeopteryx more closely resemble a group of carnivorous, nonavian dinosaurs that includes Velociraptor, which played a starring role in the film Jurassic Park . Read the Full Text