Lukas VFN πͺπΊCretaceous #fossil from #Antarctica reveals earliest modern bird
https://phys.org/news/2025-02-cretaceous-fossil-antarctica-reveals-earliest.html
#Cretaceous Antarctic bird skull elucidates early avian ecological diversity https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-024-08390-0
"Few #birds are as likely to start as many arguments among #paleontologists as #Vegavis. 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?"
Cretaceous fossil from Antarctica reveals earliest modern bird
Sixty-six million years ago, at the end of the Cretaceous Period, an asteroid impact near the YucatΓ‘n Peninsula of Mexico triggered the extinction of all known non-bird dinosaurs. But for the early ancestors of today's waterfowl, surviving that mass extinction event was likeβ¦water off a duck's back.