ancient bird - modern bird transitional found

[Tomk80]

And another transitional found, this time in the bird lineage (courtesy to leoofno on skepticfriends.org).

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/13342029/

What I find a bit disappointing on this link, is that it states many times that it fills a transitional gap, but doesn't state why that is. Does anyone have any ideas on this?

edited to add: Title should have been ancient bird - modern bird transitional found. I'm mailing the mods to change it.

 

[Frumious Bandersnatch]

I think the point is that other early bird fossils may be on branches that died out but this critter is thought to be in the direct line of some modern bird genera.

 

[I_Love_Cheese]

And another transitional found, this time in the bird lineage (courtesy to leoofno on skepticfriends.org).

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/13342029/

What I find a bit disappointing on this link, is that it states many times that it fills a transitional gap, but doesn't state why that is. Does anyone have any ideas on this?

edited to add: Title should have been ancient bird - modern bird transitional found. I'm mailing the mods to change it.

There is a better article at the BBC website here.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/5085686.stm

As I am understanding it, this find provides continuity of modern form farther back into history, while other fossils of this age where primarily from lineages that died out.

 

[Tomk80]

thanks!

 

[I_Love_Cheese]

Here is another link with some more background.
http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/pittsburghtrib/s_420944.html

Sheesh, more gaps in the fossil record. When will it ever end?

 

[Dr.GH]

I hope that this image is not too large: {edited to the medium sized image}

Fig. 3.

Phylogenetic position of G. yumenensis (50% majority-rule consensus tree) based on holotype and new referred specimens; time scale is per (28). Thin line segments represent ghost lineages; thick line segments represent known ranges of terminal taxa. Clades are denoted by black circles (see supporting online material for clade definitions). The star represents the temporal position of Enaliornis spp. Colors indicate known or inferred ecologies as follows: brown, terrestrial/arboreal; blue, aquatic/amphibious; black, equivocal. Note the sequence of amphibious taxa basal to the Neornithes. Depicted divergence times are intended as approximations only, based on the oldest occurrence of an included species and subsequent divergences. Mya, million years ago.

The new fossils, Gansus yumenensis, are "transitional" between Ornithurae (modern birds) and earlier forms

 

[ushishir]

The new fossils, Gansus yumenensis, are "transitional" between Ornithurae (modern birds) and earlier forms

Its also worth noting that Gansus was found exactly when you would expect if evolution was true. This is exactly like Tiktaalik, as far as i am aware there is no creationist explanation for this type of confirmation of evolution.

 

[Nooj]

If you scroll down a bit, you'll find Dannager's thread on this. It's looking a bit lonely.

For an excellent explanation of why this fossil find is significant, look no further than Living the Scientific Life.

Gansus is on the left, just below Icthyornis.

 

[Dannager]

Oh yeah, sure, Tom posts a thread on this and it gets all the replies, but my thread that was there first just gets ignored. Thanks a lot, guys.

 

[Tomk80]

I've got the more catchy title