Researchers have discovered a 149-million-year-old bird fossil in southeastern China, featuring a short tail structure that could rewrite the evolutionary history of birds. As detailed in a study published Wednesday in the journal Nature,

A 68-million-year-old skull fossil found in Antarctica has revealed the oldest known modern bird, which was likely related to the waterfowl that live by lakes and oceans today, according to new research.

“This fossil (Baminornis) indicates that Jurassic birds probably already had a global distribution and were much more diversified than previously thought,” said paleontologist and study co-author Zhonghe Zhou of the Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology in China.

A short-tailed bird fossil, stated to be the oldest dating back about 150 million years, was discovered by Chinese scientists in east China’s Fujian Province shedding a new light on the origin of the birds, official media here reported on Thursday.

Scientists have unearthed in southeastern China the fossil of a quail-sized bird that lived about 150 million years ago during the Jurassic Period and possessed surprisingly modern traits, a discovery that rewrites the history of avian evolution.

The bird has a short tail ending in a pygostyle, an important aerodynamic innovation moving the center of mass forward toward the wings.