THE long-lost forefather of the beloved duck and goose has been discovered, after outliving the hardy dinosaurs.
The feathered creature thrived during the Cretaceous period, and continued to do so even after an Earth-shattering asteroid strike 66million years ago.
Christopher Torres, former NSF Postdoctoral Research Fellow at Ohio University and lead author of the paper[/caption]
Its skull has a long, pointed beak and signals a brain shape similar to modern birds, suggesting it is the earliest ancestor of today’s duck and geese[/caption]
It was, of course, the infamous asteroid impact that brought an end to the age of dinosaurs.
Though it was only really the end for non-avian creatures.
Birds are thought to have found refuge in ancient Antarctica, when the now-frozen continent was warm and awash with lush green vegetation.
The area was free from the deadly tsunamis and ash clouds brought on by the asteroid that hit near the Yucatán Peninsula of Mexico.
A nearly-complete, 69million-year-old fossil of the long-extinct bird named Vegavis iaai supports this theory.
It was collected during a 2011 expedition by the Antarctic Peninsula Paleontology Project, and is believed to be the earliest modern bird in existence, according to a new study published in Nature.
Analysis of its bones suggests it would have inhabited the shallow oceans off the coast of present-day Antarctica, using its feet to dart underwater to catch fish.
Its skull has a long, pointed beak and signals a brain shape similar to modern birds, suggesting it is the earliest ancestor of today’s duck and geese.
Over the past 20 years, there has been dispute over whether Vegavis really is the great-great-grandfather of modern birds, since its skull differed greatly from birds previously discovered from the Mesozoic Era.
“Few birds are as likely to start as many arguments among paleontologists as Vegavis,” said Dr. Christopher Torres, lead author of the study and professor at the University of the Pacific.
“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?”
Though researchers believe this study, the first to analyse a near-complete Vegavis skull, puts any skepticism to rest.
Dr. Patrick O’Connor, co-author on the study and professor at Ohio University, said: “This fossil underscores that Antarctica has much to tell us about the earliest stages of modern bird evolution.”
The birds developing elsewhere on the planet at the same time barely resembled modern birds with their teeth and tails.
“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,” added Dr. O’Connor.
“Something very different seems to have been happening in the far reaches of the Southern Hemisphere, specifically in Antarctica.”
The Vegavis is thought to have found refuge in an ancient Antarctica, when the now-frozen continent was warm, and awash with lush green vegetation[/caption]
