7 mil-yr-old bird fossil found

7 mil-yr-old bird fossil found

An intact bird fossil, dating back seven million years, has been found in China.

It is also the first intact bird fossil ever found in Hezheng country - located at the convergence of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau and the Loess Plateau.

Chen Shanqin, deputy curator of the Hezheng County Ancient Animal Fossils Museum in Gansu province, revealed this on Friday.

The fossil features a struggling bird with its wings fully stretched and legs tightened, Chen said.

Judging from the stratum where it was buried and other earlier-found animal fossils, he said the fossil could date back more than seven million years.

Further study, however, is needed to identify the species, Chen added.

Archeologists have found more than 30,000 ancient animal fossils in the county and neighboring areas.

The fossils found including those of the primitive three-toed horse, the platybelodon - known as a shovel tusker - and a woolly rhino, which dates back 2.5mil to 30milyears.
Source: China Daily