US Edition69-Million-Year-Old Fossil in Antartica Identified as Earliest Modern Bird
- A 69-million-year-old fossil named Vegavis iaai has been identified as the earliest modern bird, discovered during a 2011 expedition by the Antarctic Peninsula Paleontology Project.
- The fossil supports the idea that birds thrived in ancient Antarctica, a warm region with lush vegetation, even after the asteroid impact 66 million years ago.
- Dr. Christopher Torres stated that Vegavis shows traits of modern birds, suggesting it is closely related to today's waterfowl and game fowl.
- The discovery raises questions about the evolution of modern birds and may lead to finding more ancestors of birds that lived alongside non-avian dinosaurs.
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60 Articles
Vegavis iaai is a species of anseriform birds that is considered extinct and that belonged to the family Vegaviidae. This is the only known member of the genus Vegavis and is known to belong to the clade of the Anseriformes. Vegavis iaai lived during the Upper Cretaceous of Antarctica (Maastriense Stadium), approximately 65 million years ago Among modern birds, the Vegavis is more related to the family of ducks and geese (Anatidae) although it i…
An almost complete animal skull shows that there were modern birds already at the time of dinosaurs. They lived in the ancient Antarctic, which had little to do with today's ice world.
Fossil of the Oldest Known Modern Bird Discovered in Antarctica
A 69 million-year-old skull fossil discovered in Antarctica is an ancient relative of geese and ducks, making it the oldest known modern bird. Credits: El fosilmaníaco, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons. A 69 million-year-old skull fossil discovered in Antarctica is an ancient relative of geese and ducks, making it the oldest known modern bird. The fossil was identified to be from a species discovered 20 years ago named Vegavis iaai. This anci…
They discovered in Antarctica the fossil of the oldest modern bird, which lived 69 million years ago
The discovery of Vegavis iaai that inhabited the planet in the Cretaceous period suggests that the white continent was key to the evolution of current species
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