The dinosaur Archaeopteryx is widely regarded as one of the earliest ancestors of modern birds, but the question of whether or not it could actively fly has been debated for decades. (newatlas.com)
In the past few years, a number of paleontologists have reported skeletonal evidence that saurians were warm blooded, nurturing, and the probable ancestors of modern birds. (scientificamerican.com)
The results suggest that the last common ancestor of all modern birds — in other words, the species at the base of the evolutionary family tree that includes all living bird species — lived in West Gondwana, a landmass that included what are now fragments of South America and large portions of Antarctica, about 95 million years ago. (sciencemag.org)