Thread: Ancient baby bird fossil found in China

http://www.cnn.com/2004/TECH/science....ap/index.html

WASHINGTON (AP) -- The fossil of what may be one of the earliest baby birds has been found in northeast China.

The fossil, estimated at 121 million years old, is curled up as though still in its shell. The tiny bird had a large skull, feathers and a hardened skeleton, indications that it was near maturity even though it had not yet hatched.

Birds like this one that develop feathers and can feed on their own by the time they hatch are known as precocious, in contrast to others that hatch naked and helpless.

The bird was found in a layer of shale in Liaoning province by Zhonghe Zhou and Fucheng Zhang of the Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences. They described their find in a brief report in Thursday's issue of the journal Science.

They note that while several bird embryos have been reported of a similar age, none had feathers.

very nice

On the topic of birds, did you know that Velociraptor is now known to have had feathers? I think young Tyranosaurus Rexes had feathers as well that may have been lost as they got older. However they weren't the same feathers that we see today, rather they are more furry. I'm excited when new and interestign things such as some dinosaurs having feathers as well as these findings you posted. I wonder how many more species and such we'll find in our lifetime.

Oh yeah, I heard about that. I'll stick to Jurassic Park's velociraptor when I think about them anyway, it looks cooler.