52 million year old bird fossil with feathers intact
A 52-million-year-old fossil of a falcon has been found in the US with feathers still attached to its body, an unprecedented discovery.
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Ancient perching birds resembled modern sparrows. Photo:Fox News. |
The passerine bird was discovered in Fossil Lake, Wyoming.Fox Newsreported on February 9. The famous passerine order specializes in eating seeds, accounting for about 65% of the total 10,000 different bird species alive today. The research results were published in the scientific journal Current Biology.
"This is one of the earliest known perching birds. It's interesting because passerines make up the majority of birds today, but they were incredibly rare in ancient times. The fossil is also amazing. It's a complete skeleton with feathers, which is very rare in bird fossils," said Lance Grande, curator at the Field Museum in Illinois and co-author of the study.
The 52-million-year-old bird, Eofringillirostrum boudreauxi, had a beak very similar to that of a modern sparrow. According to Daniel Ksepka, curator at the Bruce Museum in Connecticut and lead author of the study, the beak was especially well-suited to eating small, hard seeds. The earliest birds probably ate insects and fish, and some ate small lizards.
"Before this discovery, we didn't know much about the ecology of early passerines. E. boudreauxi adds important insights to our understanding of this order of birds," said Ksepka.
Fossil Lake holds a number of fossils of ancient creatures, including birds, lizards and early mammals. Most of the fossils are in perfect condition./.
