avian evolution

Island birds possess bigger brains than those from the mainland.

Newly discovered fossils shed light on the structure of the feeding apparatus of ancient seabirds.

Diverse genetic changes lead to remarkably similar hemoglobin adaptations of diverse bird species, a study finds. 

Researchers tweak gene expression in chicken embryos that may have been crucial to the evolutionary transition from dinosaur noses to bird bills.

Fossils of a new species discovered in China suggest birds developed 6 million years earlier than previously thought.

Researchers describe a small species that may have soared through Jurassic skies on membranous wings like those of bats and flying squirrels.

Junk DNA, Cuckoo, Sapiens, and Cool

Downsizing dinosaurs was key to the evolution of birds, a study shows. 

The metabolic intensity of powered flight seems to have caused some bird genomes to shrink.

A round-up of recent discoveries in behavior research

A newly discovered fossil of what may be the earliest known bird redraws the picture of the early avian evolution, but some researchers are not convinced.

Researchers discover a 70-million-year-old egg that belonged to a small, bird-like meat-eating dinosaur.

A 130 million-year-old winged dinosaur offers scientist the oldest evidence of iridescent feathers.

Dinosaur and early bird feathers trapped in amber around 80 million years ago provide unprecedented insight into the evolution of plumage.

After rummaging through thousands of amber inclusions housed at the University of Alberta and the Royal Tyrrell Museum of Paleontology in Canada, researchers discovered 11 amber encased-feather fossils that provide the most detailed picture yet of early feather evolution.

The discovery of a new bird-like fossil challenges longstanding theories about which species of dinosaur gave rise to the avian lineage.