AKIPRESS.COM - Paleontologists in China have discovered a new species of fossil bird that they say reveals a pivotal point in the evolution of flight, when birds had lost the long bony tail seen in dinosaurs such as Tyrannosaurus and the early bird Archaeopteryx, but before they had developed the fan of feathers on a shortened tail seen in flying birds today, National Geographic reports.

The 127-million-year-old species, which they have named Jinguofortis perplexus, retains other features of its dinosaur ancestors, such as claws on the fingers of its wings, a jaw with tiny teeth rather than a beak, and a fused shoulder girdle. That last trait is seemingly poorly adapted to flight, hence the name “perplexus.” (Read more about the evolutionary link between dinosaurs and modern birds.)

Discovered in the northeastern Chinese province of Hebei, Jinguofortis lived in a dense forested environment with scattered lakes, which characterized this region during the early Cretaceous. About the size of a modern crow, the species had wide, short wings that may have aided maneuverability between the trees.

“Generally, we think of the modern flight apparatus of living birds as having evolved through the gradual accumulation of refinements to their feathers, muscles, and bones over millions of years,” says Min Wang at the Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology of the Chinese Academy of Science in Beijing, whose team describes the fossil this week in the journal PNAS.

“However,” Wang says, “this new bird fossil shows that the evolution of flight was much more messy.” (See a baby bird from the age of dinosaurs found preserved in amber.)