The 69-million-year-old fossilized skull ofVegavis iaaiunearthed in Antarctica suggests that modern birds evolved before the mass extinction event that killed the dinosaurs at the end of the Cretaceous Period.
Mark WittonAn exemplification ofVegavis iaai , the duck’s egg - like tool that lived in Antarctica during the Cretaceous Period .
Long before Antarctica became the flash-frozen desert we know it as today , it was the temperate , forested home of one of Earth ’s earliest New bird species : Vegavis iaai .
V. iaaithrived in Antarctic Ethel Waters during the Cretaceous Period some 69 million years ago . Its uncomplete fossils have baffle scientist for decades , spark debates about whether it was truly an early ascendent of today ’s duck’s egg and geese .
Mark WittonAn illustration ofVegavis iaai, the duck-like creature that lived in Antarctica during the Cretaceous Period.
In 2011 , investigator unearthed a skull fromV. iaai , allow them to analyze its feature in full . Their lately print determination reveal that the species had a brain embodiment similar to modern birds , a distinct schnoz social structure , and strong jaw muscles accommodate for underwater hunting .
research worker are still piecing together the creature ’s post in the evolutionary phonograph record , and they hope that future fogy discoveries will render a clearer picture of how wench go the pot extinction effect that spelled the end for most dinosaurs .
Finding Fossils Of ‘Vegavis Iaai’ In Antarctica
In 1992 , the firstVegavis iaaifossil was identify on Vega Island in Antarctica . It date stamp back roughly 68 million year to the Cretaceous Period , a geological earned run average that visit some of today ’s most recognisable dinosaur , admit the Tyrannosaurus male monarch and Triceratops . During this full point , Antarctica was alush rainforestwith average temperatures hovering at 66 academic degree in the summer .
The end of the Cretaceous Period come when agiant asteroid hit Earth , causing the quenching of non - avian dinosaurs . Many scholars assumed that modern skirt evolve in reaction to this great deal extinction event , but the discovery ofV. iaaihas reverse that thought on its head .
Joseph W. Holliday / Wikimedia CommonsVega Island in Antarctica , where the firstV. iaaifossil was light upon .
Joseph W. Holliday/Wikimedia CommonsVega Island in Antarctica, where the firstV. iaaifossil was discovered.
“ We have long acknowledge that mod hoot exploded in diversity in the immediate wake of the end - Cretaceous mass extinction . But what were innovative birds up to just before that extinction event ? Most innovative phylogenomic studies agree that many … departure among mod hiss must have arise prior the end - Cretaceous mass experimental extinction event , ” survey Colorado - author Christopher Torres , a paleontologist at The University of the Pacific in Stockton , California , toldAll That ’s Interesting . “ But fossils that record that interval of doll evolution are vanishingly scarce . ”
Julia Clarke , a palaeontologist at the University of Texas , Austin , was the first to describeV. iaaias an ascendant of modern bird , specially waterfowl . Other scholars doubted the determination , citing the 1992 dodo ’s lack of a skull .
“ [ The initial fossil ] was just a completely different part of the frame . And when it come to birds , the skull has a lot of phyletic or informative characteristics that say you what it is , ” discipline co - generator Patrick O’Connor , an evolutionary biologist at Ohio University , toldLive Science .
Joseph Groenke/Ohio University and Christopher Torres/University of the PacificA digital reconstruction of the skull ofVegavis iaai.
Then , in 2011 , a fossilised skull ofV. iaaiwas discovered , provide researcher the chance to better place the bird in the evolutionary record .
Analyzing The Oldest Modern Bird Fossil Ever Discovered
In astudy of late write in the journalNature , researchers examined the skull ofV. iaaito find out more about the prehistoric metal money and its place in the razzing folk .
Using 3D reconstruction , researchers identified several key feature film of the bird . First , they happen upon that it had a wit shape and pick structure distinctive of forward-looking birds . The rock the skull was encased in was between 68.4 and 69.2 million years old , suggesting New birds evolved before dinosaur went extinct .
“ [ The skull ] provides anatomic detail that indicateVegavishad jaws that were specialise to snapping up Pisces as it dive underwater – that ’s an ecology quite unlike what we see in mod duck and geese today and is instead much more like to grebe and loon ! ” Torres explain toAll That ’s Interesting .
Joseph Groenke / Ohio University and Christopher Torres / University of the PacificA digital Reconstruction Period of the skull ofVegavis iaai .
The analysis also showed thatV. iaaihad stiff jaw muscular tissue exchangeable to today ’s diving birds . This grounds supports a connection betweenV. iaaiand modern birds , but it has not positively identified the species as an ancestor of duck and twat .
“ Vegavis was quite distant to ducks in terms of meter , but it was a very close relative of ducks in terms of phylogeny – it was more intimately related to ducks and geese than the extant screecher , some strange waterfowl from South America , ” Torres stated .
Torres share that the closest relative ofV. iaaiwas another water bird called Conflicto . Its fossil were discovered on Seymour Island , just south of Vega Island .
“ Vegavis is … from the same rock’n’roll formation , but on the diametric side of the mass extinguishing event – Vegavis lived just prior , Conflicto live just after , ” he wrote . UnlikeV. iaai , Conflicto was a long - legged wader birdie . The differences between the coinage has intrigue Torres and his colleague who are prove to understand how species accommodate during mass extermination outcome :
“ Further subject area of the south-polar fogy disc will belike facilitate us realise how extant lineages of birds and other organisms answer to catastrophic global mood change in the past , and hopefully we will be capable to use that understanding to predict how those same lineages might respond to such climate change in the ( potentially very near ) future ! ”
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