Just over a little finger long, a prehistoric bird that lived about 127 million years ago. It wasn't just the great dinosaurs that populated our land in ancient times. A research team from the University of Manchester has discovered the fossil remains of a chick belonging to a group of prehistoric birds called Enantiornithes
Just over a little finger long, a prehistoric bird that lived about 127 million years ago. It wasn't just the great dinosaurs that populated our land in ancient times. A research team from the University of Manchester has discovered the fossil remains of a chick belonging to a group of birds called Enantiornithes.
Not only huge creatures but also much smaller animals, like this newly discovered bird. Less than five centimeters tall and weighing 8,5 grams, roughly the size of a cockroach, it could provide scientists with new insights into the evolution of birds and how they lived "alongside" dinosaurs millions of years ago.
What makes the discovery particularly special is that paleontologists have recovered it almost the entire skeleton and that the bird died shortly after it hatched, giving us an idea of the little creature's still developing bone structure.
As one of the smallest bird fossils ever recovered from the Mesozoic era (250-65 million years ago), the researchers used a special technique called synchrotron microtomography to map bone structure in detail.
They then reported these scans into 3D models. It turned out that the bird's breastbone (pectoral bone) was still made of cartilage, so the animal was not yet able to fly. The bird was also featherless.
It is not yet known whether these types of birds remained in their nest or were able to roam independently as they grew up.
The connections between dinosaurs and time birds are of enormous interest to researchers, not least because the smallest of these birds managed to survive the infamous meteorite and help repopulate the world in a post-dinosaur era.
"It is amazing to realize how many of the characteristics we see among live birds were already developed more than 100 million years ago," explains one of the team members, Luis Chiappe.
This is why today's birds are a real evolutionary link with the prehistoric age and this little creature could be an important piece.
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Francesca Mancuso
