Scansoriopteryx

 http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10336-014-1098-9/fulltext.html (2014)

Jurassic archosaur is a non-dinosaurian bird

Stephen A. Czerkas, Alan Feduccia

Re-examination utilizing Keyence 3D digital microscopy and low angled illumination of the fossil Scansoriopteryx, a problematic sparrow-size pre-Archaeopteryx specimen from the Jurassic Daohugou Biotas, provides new evidence which challenges the widely accepted hypothesis that birds are derived from dinosaurs in which avian flight originated from cursorial forms. Contrary to previous interpretations in which Scansoriopteryx was considered to be a coelurosaurian theropod dinosaur, the absence of fundamental dinosaurian characteristics demonstrates that it was not derived from a dinosaurian ancestry and should not be considered as a theropod dinosaur.