Science

Chinese fossil reveals 150-million-year-old bird with dinosaur-like teeth and claw

ScienceDaily reports that a Nature study describes Yuezhuornis yangyuanensis, a Late Jurassic bird the authors say lost the ability to fly.

Updated Oct 24, 2026 · 14:14 UTC1 reports

The short version

Researchers from Chinese institutes described Yuezhuornis yangyuanensis, a Late Jurassic bird, in a study published in Nature.[ScienceDaily]
The fossil combines early bird features with dinosaur traits, including serrated teeth resembling deinonychosaur teeth and a sickle-shaped claw on the second toe.[ScienceDaily]
According to the study's authors, the species is the earliest known bird lineage to lose flight, though this single-outlet account has not been independently verified.[ScienceDaily]

Yuezhuornis yangyuanensis lived during the Late Jurassic period, roughly 150 to 148 million years ago.[ScienceDaily]
Researchers from the Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and the Fujian Institute of Geological Sciences uncovered the fossil in the Zhenghe Fauna of Fujian Province, China.[ScienceDaily]
The species is described in a study published in Nature.[ScienceDaily]
The fossil's jaws contained closely spaced, serrated teeth resembling those of deinonychosaurs.[ScienceDaily]
The second toe could bend backward unusually far and carried a curved, sickle-shaped claw.[ScienceDaily]
Two analytical methods, maximum parsimony and Bayesian tip-dating, consistently placed Yuezhuornis within Avialae, as a sister taxon to Zhengheornis.[ScienceDaily]

The flight-loss conclusion is attributed to the study's authors, and the report does not describe independent verification.[ScienceDaily]
Only ScienceDaily is reporting this event among the provided sources, so the account is not independently corroborated.[ScienceDaily]

Outlet counts describe coverage, not independent confirmation. Reports may share a wire service or original source.