BEIJING, June 18 (Xinhuanet) -- A team led by Hai-lu You, of Beijing's Chinese Academy of Geological Sciences,located the remains of a species in mudstone slabs formed by sediments deposited on an ancient lake bottom about 1,240 miles (2,000 kilometers) west of Beijing in the province of Gansu.

It may have looked like a duck and acted like a duck, but Gansus was no duck.

Study co-author Jerald Harris is director of paleontology at Dixie State College in St. George, Utah. Hesaid the preserved skin of the webbed feet of Gansusshows the same microscopic structure seen in aquatic birds today.

"It was unexpected to find a bird this advanced in rocks this old," Harris said. "It tells us that the anatomical features we use to characterize modern birds evolved very quickly."

According to the researchers, Gansus is the oldest clearly established member of the subclass Ornithurae, the group most closely related to modern birds.

The discovery supports the view that key characteristics of modern birds evolvedlong before the demise of the dinosaurs and that the common ancestor of all today's birds was, like Gansus, a dapted to an aquatic lifestyle. Enditem

(Agencies)