Roughly 66.8 million years ago—not long before the end-Cretaceous extinction that wiped out all non-avian dinosaurs—a diminutive, quail-sized bird met an unfortunate and untimely end.
But the relatives of this pint-sized creature—a newly described fossil cheekily dubbed “Wonderchicken”—lived on, helping to seed the enduring, diverse lineage of birds that still fills the skies of the modern world.
Now the oldest known member of the contemporary branch of the avian family tree, Wonderchicken (formally Asteriornis maastrichtensis) (...)
Boasting the face of a chicken or turkey superimposed on the head of a duck, the skull is, in a way, a natural “turducken”—and remarkably modern (...) the bird’s long, slender legs point to a possible shoreline habitat. This medley of features puts Wonderchicken, which was probably about the size of a seagull, near the likely evolutionary juncture where waterfowl (like ducks) and landfowl (like poultry) once split (...)
Aucun commentaire:
Enregistrer un commentaire