PRIMITIVE ducks may have shared the same swamps as Tyrannosaurus rex, according to new research. The fossil remains of a 70 million-year-old bird that appears to be an ancestor of modern ducks and geese have been discovered in Antarctica, showing conclusively that the relatives of modern birds lived alongside the dinosaurs.
While the first known bird, Archaeopteryx, lived 147 million years ago, it is commonly recognised to have been a "dead end" species whose descendents died out and did not give rise to modern birds. The question of when today's birds started to evolve has long been the subject of scientific controversy. Some experts believe that they started to emerge alongside the dinosaurs of the late Cretaceous period, while others insist that bird evolution started only after the extinction of the dinosaurs 65 million years ago. The discovery of a new species, Vegavis iaai, appears to settle the argument, as it has been conclusively dated to 70 million years ago — comfortably before dinosaurs died out. Vegavis was found in 1992, but a new analysis of its bones has established it as a distinct species and established its date. |