Rare Baby Bird Fossil Found in Dino-Era Rock
The 127-million-year-old hatchling could provide insight into avian evolution.
Look at the length of your pinky finger. There was once a teeth-bearing, claw-wearing bird on this planet that was just that small.
About a decade ago, scientists unearthed the fossilized remains of a baby bird at the bottom of a lake in central Spain. With recent analysis, they have found that the nearly complete avian skeleton dates back roughly 127 million years, putting it in the Mesozoic Era, during the time of dinosaurs.
The fossil is of a young hatchling belonging to the Enantiornithes family, a group of prehistoric birds. These flyers would have looked similar to modern birds, but with teeth and clawed fingers at the ends of their wings. The specimen is less than two inches long
