Today Top World News - Two-Tailed Ancient Dinosaur-Era Bird Uncovered

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Today Top World News
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Two-Tailed Ancient Dinosaur-Era Bird Uncovered
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(No Transcript)
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• The Today world news and the today top world news
  brings you a news of an ancient bird, A
  120-million-year-old bird sported not one, but
  two tails, paleontologists found. The discovery
  indicates to a complicated evolutionary path in
  the tails of birds we see today, National
  Geographic reported.

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• The second-oldest known bird, Jeholornis, lived
  in what is today China along with other feathered
  prehistoric animals. Fossils show the Jeholornis
  was the size of a turkey, had claws on its winged
  forelimbs with three small teeth in its lower
  jaw.
• Now, paleontologists are looking at the rear end
  of the huge birds. They not only possess a
  long-fan feathered tail but also a second tail
  frond.

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• "The 'two-tail' plumage of Jeholornis is
  exceptional," according to a study published in
  the Proceedings of the National Academy of
  Sciences. The study was led by Jingmai OConnor
  of the Chinese Academy of Sciences in Beijing.
• Much like today's male peacocks which sport
  colorful feathers to attract their mates, the
  study suggests only male Jeholornis had the
  eye-catching tail fronds.

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• "Clearly the display aspect of the frond would
  have been indisputable," says paleontologist Mark
  Norell, of the American Museum of Natural History
  in New York, who was not part of the study. "It
  calls to mind living birds, even peacocks, which
  display broad plumes of feathers."