Remarkable Fossil Discovery Hints at Antarctic Origins of All Modern Birds
A near-perfect fossilized skull discovered in Antarctica reveals the bridge between prehistoric and modern birds, a new study has found.
The fossil is a specimen of a species called Vegavis iaai, which lived around 69 million years ago – more than 2 million years before the mass extinction that wiped out all non-avian dinosaurs.
It has a long pointed beak and a brain shape unlike any other Mesozoic birds, which were markedly different from species that would evolve into the class of feathered creatures we see around us today.
Ever since Vegavis was described 20 years ago, some paleontologists suspected the genus might be an early member of modern birds, within the order of waterfowl. Others doubted it since modern birds were extremely rare prior to the asteroid impact that triggered the end-Cretaceous extinction.
But they were missing what is arguably the most important piece of Vegavis, at least when it comes to taxonomy: a somewhat-intact skull.
"Few birds are as likely to start as many arguments among paleontologists as Vegavis," says lead author Christopher Torres, a paleontologist from Ohio University.
"This new fossil is going to help resolve a lot of those arguments. Chief among them: where is Vegavis perched in the bird tree of life?"
Bird fossils can be quite delicate, and few from this time are preserved in such good shape as this one. All other Vegavis specimens found to date have been either skeletons sans head, or just bits of the skull.
The researchers suspect the species may have survived the mass extinction because of their Antarctic location, which would have offered a temperate climate with lush vegetation at a time when the rest of the world was quite uninhabitable.
"Elsewhere globally, the rapid environmental upheaval characterizing the K–Pg boundary is generally marked by similarly rapid replacement of stem birds by crown birds, followed by diversification of the latter early in the Palaeogene," the authors write.
That makes V. iaii the best representative we have for the bridge between prehistoric and modern birds.
The researchers used X-ray micro-computed tomography to scan the skull and digitally reconstruct it in three dimensions, revealing details of its braincase, palate, rostrum and mandible, as well as its brain shape.
The specimen hints at features consistent with modern waterfowl, but unlike the ducks and geese of today, V. iaai also had a slender, pointed beak and powerful jaw muscles for snapping up fish: features that are more similar to those of diving birds of today like grebes and loons.
It has a well-developed salt gland in the nasal region of its beak, a feature that removes sodium chloride from the blood of some marine bird species with diets high in seafood and, consequentially, salt.
The rest of the fossil skeleton builds on this picture of V. iaai's aquatic lifestyle, with legs that positioned the feet to propel the bird through the water in pursuit of swimming prey.
"Those few places with any substantial fossil record of Late Cretaceous birds, like Madagascar and Argentina, reveal an aviary of bizarre, now-extinct species with teeth and long bony tails, only distantly related to modern birds," says paleontologist Patrick O'Connor from Ohio University.
"Something very different seems to have been happening in the far reaches of the Southern Hemisphere, specifically in Antarctica."
This research was published in Nature.
DNA Confirms Orcas Prey Upon One of Australia's Deadliest Marine Predators
'Beyond Doubt': Proteins in Fossil From Actual Dinosaur, Claim Scientists
'Lost City' Deep Under The Ocean Is Unlike Anything We've Ever Seen Before on Earth
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
2 days ago
- Yahoo
Zion museum's new temporary exhibit delves into research on end-Triassic extinction
SPRINGDALE, Utah () — A new, temporary exhibit featuring research on the Triassic and Jurassic periods is available at the Zion Human History Museum. It features research on geoscience and extinction, as well as a model phytosaur skull. The new exhibit will bring guests through the late Triassic period, the end-Triassic Extinction, and the beginnings of the Jurassic period, between 227 to 180 million years ago. This is the culmination of a seven-year research project involving scientists from all over. Dr. Celina Suarez, a geoscience professor at the University of Arkansas, led the team. The rocks at Zion National Park were key to this research, as they were used to study and understand the climate change that led to the end-Triassic Extinction. Two Utah campgrounds included in list of 50 Favorite Places to Camp in America Right Now: Hipcamp According to a press release from Zion National Park, Dr. Suarez and her team identified 'a spike in CO2 levels in the park's Moenave Formation.' Using this information, the scientists were able to pinpoint a rapid increase in volcanic eruptions that led to the supercontinent Pangea splitting. 'We've got to look at the geologic past and all these past events to understand where we're going in the future,' Dr. Suarez is quoted in a press release. 'If we can just get one or two people that come and visit Zion to understand that … I've done my job.' Alongside that discovery, which is mirrored in sites all around the world, Dr. Suarez and the team of scientists found that the CO2 spike would also cause wildfires and 'intense weather patterns' that led to the End Triassic Extinction, which wiped out 'approximately 80 percent of all marine and terrestrial species on Earth,' according to the release. 10 hikes with stunning wildflowers across Utah The new exhibit at the Zion History Museum was built on this research, and was created by a collaboration between scientists, artists, and partners. Zion National Park extends a special thanks to the Zion Forever Project, St. George Dinosaur Discovery Museum, the Utah Geological Survey and the National Science Foundation in their release. 'None of us could have done anything to this scale by ourselves,' Robyn Henderek, the park's physical scientist, is quoted. 'We all had a role to play in this process.' For more information about visiting this new exhibit, visit . Orangutan at Utah's Hogle Zoo expecting baby this month Trump and Musk feud escalates Tariff battle continues Zion museum's new temporary exhibit delves into research on end-Triassic extinction One person dead following accident on Highway 89 near Utah-Sanpete county line Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Yahoo
30-05-2025
- Yahoo
Birds have been nesting in the Arctic Circle for almost 73 million years, newly discovered fossils reveal
When you buy through links on our articles, Future and its syndication partners may earn a commission. Birds have been nesting in rugged Arctic environments for almost 73 million years, new research finds — more than 25 million years longer than was previously thought. A collection of more than 50 fossils found in northern Alaska, which include embryos and hatchlings, suggest some of the early ancestors of modern birds either migrated or adapted to the harsh polar environment in the Mesozoic era, the age of dinosaurs. "The common conception is they're too primitive to be exhibiting this advanced behavior," Lauren Wilson, lead author of the study and a doctoral student of paleontology at Princeton University, told Live Science. "So you're either dealing with [Arctic winters] as an itty-bitty, freshly hatched bird, or you're 3 months old, and having to fly about 2,000 kilometers [1,240 miles] to get to a point where it makes sense to even migrate," Wilson explained. "I don't think we would expect either of those things from these birds that don't belong to that modern lineage of birds." Whether the birds migrated south or hunkered down for the winter, the research provides the earliest known evidence of either behavior in birds. And while some modern birds, like the ivory gull (Pagophila eburnea) and snowy owl (Bubo scandiacus) are known to nest in the frigid Arctic, there is now evidence that this behavior started millions of years before the meteor that wiped out non-avian dinosaurs crashed into Earth, if not earlier. "Many birds nest in the Arctic today, and they are key parts of Arctic communities and ecosystems and food webs," Steve Brusatte, a professor of paleontology and evolution at the University of Edinburgh who peer-reviewed the study but was not involved in it, told Live Science in an email. "These fossils show that birds were already integral parts of these high latitude communities many tens of millions of years ago, and thus that these communities are a long-term norm of Earth history, not a recent ecological innovation of modern times." The fossils in the collection come from at least three different families of bird: the extinct, loon-like hesperornithes; ichthyornithes, an extinct bird that resembled seagulls; and several species resembling ducks that are within or very similar to neornithes, the group containing all modern birds. Related: Hoatzin: The strange 'stinkbird' born with clawed wings that appears to be an evolutionary 'orphan' Notably, the researchers did not find any fossils of the dominant bird group of the Cretaceous period (145 million to 66 million years ago) — enantiornithes, now-extinct birds that typically had teeth in their beaks and claws on their wings. But a few factors reveal why they likely didn't live in the Arctic. They likely took longer than other birds to incubate their eggs, they took several years to reach full adult size (where most modern birds grow to adult size within weeks) and they "may have had a period where they're almost naked because they molted their feathers simultaneously," which is not helpful during an Arctic winter, said study co-author Daniel Ksepka, a paleontologist and curator of the Bruce Museum in Connecticut. The world was warmer in the Late Cretaceous than it is today, but the region the birds were found in likely experienced freezing temperatures, snow and roughly four straight months of winter darkness. Growing to adulthood so quickly allowed modern birds to practice long-range migration and prosper during those ancient Arctic summers, which boasted around six months of 24-hour daylight and a burst in insect populations. But the weather wasn't the only challenge. They lived alongside "probably about 12 or 13 different kinds of typical dinosaurs," like the Pachyrhinosaurus, a relative of Triceratops that was about 16 feet (5 meters) long and weighed 2 tons (1,800 kilograms). Other dinosaurs like Troodon, an 11-foot tall meat-eater with short, serrated teeth, "would have happily taken advantage of a bunch of these little cute little chicks for dinner," said Patrick Druckenmiller, director of the University of Alaska Museum of the North and advising author of the study. RELATED STORIES —Chickens sprouted dino-like feathers when scientists messed with the Sonic Hedgehog gene —Why don't all birds fly? —Ancient duck-like creature discovered in Antarctica may be the oldest modern bird ever discovered To get to the fossil sites in the Prince Creek Formation in Northern Alaska, the researchers drove 500 miles (800 km) from Fairbanks, chartered a small aircraft to fly to the Colville River, then took inflatable motorboats up the river before setting up camp, Druckenmiller said. There they would look for an "orangey, pebbly, sandy" layer of sediment that contains small bones and teeth, and often lay on the permafrost to "excavate with little dental picks and small tools" from the layer itself. Now that the Prince Creek Formation is "one of the major North American Cretaceous bird sites," according to the researchers, Wilson says the next step is simply to find more fossils. "The more bones we find, the more confident we can be in exactly what types of birds we have," she said. "We might even still find a random bone that's from a bird we didn't know was there."
Yahoo
29-05-2025
- Yahoo
Giant 85 million-year-old mystery sea monster fossil finally identified
When you buy through links on our articles, Future and its syndication partners may earn a commission. Scientists have finally solved the mystery behind the identity of a prehistoric sea monster. The marine reptile, which could grow to around 39 feet (12 meters) long and had heavy teeth for crushing prey, was previously known from several sets of fossils unearthed over the past two decades. One key fossil was a complete but badly-preserved adult skeleton from about 85 million years ago, discovered in 1988 on Vancouver Island in British Columbia, Canada. It was thought to come from a group of long-necked reptiles known as plesiosaurs. However, until now, scientists weren't sure if it belonged to a new species or a previously discovered one. "The identity of the animal that left the fossils has remained a mystery," F. Robin O'Keefe, a professor of anatomy at Marshall University in West Virginia, said in a statement. "Our new research published today finally solves this mystery." In a new study published May 22 in the Journal of Systematic Palaeontology, O'Keefe and colleagues formally classified all the fossils as Traskasaura sandrae. This species is so different from other marine reptiles that researchers assigned it to a brand new genus, Traskasaura, within a subgroup of plesiosaurs called elasmosaurs. Elasmosaurs, like other plesiosaurs, lived throughout the Cretaceous period (145 to 66 million years ago) alongside the dinosaurs and shared the oceans with other marine reptiles, including ichthyosaurs and mosasaurs. Plesiosaurs were characterized by having small heads on long necks, broad bodies and four large, paddle-like limbs. The mythical Loch Ness Monster is usually depicted as a plesiosaur. They are thought to have breathed air and probably had to surface regularly, akin to modern-day marine mammals. The first T. sandrae specimen was unearthed in 1988 in the Haslam Formation on Vancouver Island, was formally described by scientists in 2002 and dates back to between 86 and 83 million years ago. Other fossils found in the same region include a right humerus and an "excellently preserved" juvenile skeleton. Related: Half-a-billion-year-old 3-eyed sea creature dubbed 'Mosura' breathed through big gills on its butt Although the adult specimen discovered in 1988 wasn't quite different enough from other elasmosaurs, it wasn't similar enough to any known species either. "Relatively few characters are unambiguous on this skeleton," the researchers wrote in their paper. Newer fossils also had strange traits, but they weren't complete enough to confirm the possibility of a new species. The newest juvenile skeleton specimen, however, helped shed light on these ancient creatures' features, revealing that three had the same key traits. "It has a very odd mix of primitive and derived traits — the shoulder, in particular, is unlike any other plesiosaur I have ever seen," said O'Keefe. After analyzing the features of all three fossil specimens, the researchers concluded that they must all belong to a new genus of elasmosaur. RELATED STORIES —Ancient sea monsters grew their long necks super fast after Great Dying by adding more vertebrae —Enormous 240 million-year-old sea monster had its head torn off in one clean bite —Giant 'sea dragon' fossil could be largest mosasaur ever discovered in Mississippi T. sandrae is thought to have at least 50 vertebrae in its neck. This adaptation may have made the aquatic predator extremely good at downward swimming and suggests that it hunted prey by diving from above. What about their diet? The ammonite molluscs that were plentiful in the oceans during the Cretaceous period are a "good candidate — due to Traskasaura's robust teeth, ideal, possibly, for crushing ammonite shells," O'Keefe said. "When I first saw the fossils and realized they represented a new taxon, I thought it might be related to other plesiosaurs from the Antarctic," said O'Keefe. "My Chilean colleague Rodrigo Otero thought differently, and he was right; Traskasaura is a strange, convergently evolved, fascinating beast."
