First bird

The earliest fossil bird is known from two partial skeletons found in Texas, USA in rocks dating from 220 million years ago. Named Protoavis texensis in 1991, this pheasant-sized creature has caused much controversy by pushing the age of birds back many millions of years from the previous record – that of the more familiar Archaeopteryx lithographica found in Jurassic sediments in Germany. It is still unclear whether Protoavis will be widely accepted as a true bird, making Archaeopteryx, the 153-million-year-old crow-sized flier, the earliest unambiguous fossil bird.