New Study Finds New Evidence on Link between Birds, Dinosaurs

Varieties

June 30th, 7:31am

Cairo - Hazem Badr

An artist's impression of a Gigantoraptor. Ho / Reuters

A Chinese research team has discovered a tiny, 120 million-year-old fossil in northeast China that belongs to an animal with a bird body, and a skull similar to that of a Tyrannosaurus rex. In their study published in the latest issue of the Nature Communication journal. The researchers suggested this bizarre avian species once belonged to an extinct group of early birds called enantiornithines. They also said this discovery is an important evolutionary step on the way to modern birds. While the 2-centimeter-long (0.75-inch) skull of this little fella holds similarities to much larger dinosaurs like Tyrannosaurus rex, its thin and delicate body looks more like modern-day crown birds, such as sparrows or hummingbirds. Careful CT scans and a detailed reconstruction of the fossil suggest this bizarre avian species once belonged to an extinct group of early birds called enantiornithines, or "opposite birds." While enantiornithines did not survive the Mesozoic mass extinction event, many of their traits still live on today and they are considered an important evolutionary step on the way to modern birds, as highlights the new study. Some other enantiornithines that have been discovered are no larger than a cockroach. This new one is slightly bigger and would have fit in the palm of your hand. "The noggin on this early bird is particularly unique and excellently preserved. Unlike modern birds, whose upper jaws move independently from their brain case, which is known as cranial 'kinesis', the bones on this newly discovered skull are "locked up" and immovable. They even show attachment points for jaw muscles, which are usually found in dinosaurs and reptiles, like lizards and alligators," said paleontologist Min Wang from the Chinese Academy of Sciences, in a report by the Science Alert website. "One bone in particular, known as the pterygoid, looked "exactly like that of the dromaeosaur Linheraptor, and this proves the link between birds and dinosaurs," according to Wang. Linheraptor dinosaurs are bird-like theropods, an extinct group of dinosaurs that also includes meat-eaters like the T. rex and Velociraptor.

from Asharq AL-awsat https://english.aawsat.com/home/article/3054856/new-study-finds-new-evidence-link-between-birds-dinosaurs