Fish-eating enantiornithine bird provides evidence of modern avian digestive features
Friday, May 6, 2016 - 08:00
in Paleontology & Archaeology
Enantiornithes are the most successful clade of Mesozoic birds, representing the sister group of the Ornithuromorpha, which gave rise to living birds. Nevertheless, the feeding habits of enantiornithines have remained unknown because of a lack of fossil evidence. In contrast, exceptionally preserved fossils reveal that derived avian features were present in the digestive systems of some non-enantiornithine birds with ages exceeding 125 million years.