69-Million-Year-Old Fossil in Antartica Identified as Earliest Modern Bird

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…

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

This 69-Million-Year-Old Duck-like Skull Reveals How Modern Birds Survived the Dinosaurs

The discovery of a 69-million-year-old bird fossil is reshaping our understanding of avian evolution.

Paleontologists Discover Fossil of the Oldest Known Modern Bird—but It Raises More Questions Than It Answers

The fossil suggests that modern birds evolved before the dinosaur-killing asteroid, perhaps in Antarctica