China fossil shows bird, crocodile family trees split earlier than thought
Wednesday, May 18, 2011 - 14:30
in Paleontology & Archaeology
A fossil unearthed in China in the 1970s of a creature that died about 247 million years ago, originally thought to be a distant relative of both birds and crocodiles, turns out to have come from the crocodile family tree after it had already split from the bird family tree, according to research led by a University of Washington paleontologist.