Recent discoveries of feathered dinosaur fossils have prompted dramatic new theories on the evolution of birds and flight, including the suggestion that the iconic Archaeopteryx might be at some distance from the ancestry of modern birds. Now Archaeopteryx is back, with the discovery of yet another bird-like dinosaur, from the Tiaojishan Formation (Middle-Late Jurassic) of Liaoning Province, China. Phylogenetic analyses restore Archaeopteryx as an early diverging avialan and realign Troodontidae as the sister-group for Avialae.
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