Joel Kontinen
A 75-million-year-old fossil, from a bird about the size of a turkey vulture, is the most complete skeleton. Discovered in North America of what are called enantiornithines, it lived with dinoes.
“It is quite likely that, if you saw one in real life and just glanced at it, you wouldn’t be able to distinguish it from a modern bird,” Study participant Jessie Atterholt said.
She went on to say: “That by the late Cretaceous, enantiornithines had evolved advanced adaptations for flying independent of today’s birds. In fact, they looked quite similar to modern birds: they were fully feathered and flew by flapping their wings like modern birds. The fossilized bird probably had teeth in the front of its beak and claws on its wings as well as feet. Some enantiornithines had prominent tail feathers that may have differed between male and female and been used for sexual display.”
“These rough patches are quill knobs, and in modern birds they anchor the wing feathers to the skeleton to help strengthen them for active flight. This is the first discovery of quill knobs in any enantiornithine bird, which tells us that it was a very strong flier.”
How could these birds become extinct, DINO-Era birds showed just the opposite? They’ve drove with the dinoes, but then they vanished away.
Source:
Sanders, Robert 2018. Rare Fossil Bird Deepens Mystery of Avian Extinctions. Berkeley.edu (13 November)
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