中国科学院古脊椎动物与古人类研究所等机构在福建省东南部发现了一件距今1.5亿年的化石，该生物被命名为翼龙鸟（Yuezhuornis yangyuanensis）1。这一发现刊登在《自然》杂志上，展现了侏罗纪晚期鸟类演化的意外特征1。
翼龙鸟体型与乌鸦相近，兼具鸟类和恐龙的特征1。虽然具有典型的鸟类骨骼，但仍保留了齿龙类恐龙的锯齿和镰刀状爪1。其肢体比例类似现代地栖鸟类，表明其主要在陆地生活而非飞行1。
从演化地位看，翼龙鸟位于始祖鸟之后，与郑贺鸟为姊妹类群，属于鸟翼类（Avialae）1。这项研究由Min Wang等研究人员主导，揭示了早期鸟类演化比预期更为复杂，并非单纯朝着飞行能力发展1。
Researchers at the Chinese Academy of Sciences' Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology, working alongside the Fujian Geological Science Research Institute, have identified a 150-to-148-million-year-old fossil from the Late Jurassic period discovered in southeastern Fujian Province, China.1 The specimen, named Yuezhuornis yangyuanensis, represents a crow-sized creature that challenges conventional understanding of early avian evolution.1
The fossil exhibits a remarkable combination of bird-like skeletal features alongside distinctly dinosaurian characteristics, including serrated teeth and sickle-shaped claws typical of troodontid dinosaurs.1 Positioned evolutionarily between Archaeopteryx and Zhenyuaornis within the group Avialae, this species marks the earliest known bird lineage to have lost the capacity for flight.1 Analysis of its limb proportions reveals similarities to modern ground-dwelling birds, indicating that the creature was primarily terrestrial rather than adapted for aerial locomotion.1 The findings, published in Nature in 2026 under the corresponding authorship of Min Wang and research by Zhonghe Zhou and colleagues, suggest that early bird evolution followed a more complex trajectory than previously understood, with some lineages diverging away from flight capabilities rather than progressively refining them.1
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