Fossil strengthens avian-dino link

PARIS: A young dinosaur that fatefully wandered into a mudpool around 155 million years ago could help explain the mysterious evolution of birds, says the world's most famous fossil-hunter.

A team led Xing Xu, a Chinese dino expert with scores of astonishing finds to his name, uncovered the fossilized remains of a small, exceptional dinosaur in the Shishugou Formation in western China's Junggar Basin.

The creature is the only known beaked herbivorous theropod - the family of two-legged dinosaurs that were notorious meat-eaters - from the Jurassic era, the scientists report in Nature, the London scientific journal.