Seeds dating back nearly 120 million years tell a new story about what the first birds on Earth ate. Paleontologists have found seeds in the fossilized stomachs of early birds, despite a long-held assumption that these species ate mostly fish. Details of the discovery can be found here. The study was published in the journal Neurology on September 10th. Current Biology.
The remains are now Extinct Longipteryx caoyangensis. This small but long-beaked, strong-toothed bird lived in what is now northeastern China about 120 million years ago.
“Longipteryx “This bird fossil is one of my favorites because it’s so strange — it has a long skull and only has teeth at the tip of its beak,” said study co-author Jinmai O’Connor, associate curator of fossil reptiles at the Field Museum’s Neguanee Integrated Research Center. It said in a statement.
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“Tooth enamel is the hardest substance in the body, and Longipteryx’s tooth enamel is 50 microns thick.” Alex Clarke adds:“That’s the same thickness of enamel as a giant carnivorous dinosaur like an Allosaurus, which weighed 4,000 pounds,” said study co-author and doctoral student at the Field Museum and the University of Chicago. Longipteryx It’s about the size of a blue jay.”
Longipteryx Was It was first discovered and named in 2000.At the time, paleontologists suggested that the creature likely hunted fish because it had an elongated skull like a modern kingfisher’s, but many scientists have questioned this hypothesis.
“There are other fossil birds. JanornisWe know that fish-eating birds are fish-eaters because specimens have been found with preserved stomach contents, and fish tend to preserve well. Furthermore, these fish-eating birds, unlike other birds, had many teeth throughout their beaks. Longipteryx “They only have teeth at the tip of their beak,” O’Connor said. “That doesn’t make sense.”
During a visit to the Shandong Tianyu Natural History Museum in China, O’Connor discovered two Longipteryx A specimen that looks like it has something in its stomach. Fabiani Herrera, a paleobotanist and associate curator of fossil botany at the Field Museum, said these tiny, round structures in the bird’s stomach are Seeds from the fruit of an ancient treeMore technically, they are seeds covered in pulp, or “true fruits,” and are found only in flowering plants. These abundant plants began to flourish about 120 million years ago. Longipteryx Walked the Earth. Longipteryx was feeding from Gymnospermsrelatives Ginkgo And conifers still grow there today.
Longipteryx And because it lived in a temperate climate, it probably didn’t eat fruit all year round: the team believes it likely had a mixed diet, eating insects when fruit was unavailable.
Longipteryx They are members of a large group of prehistoric birds called Enantiornithin general It is about the size of a starling or a sparrow. This discovery marks the first time that researchers have discovered the stomach contents of an Enantiornithine. Jehol Biota, ChinaThis is despite the fact that thousands of fossils have been found in the area.
“It’s always puzzling not to know what they were eating, but this study points to a larger problem in paleontology, which is that the physical characteristics of a fossil don’t always tell the whole story about what an animal was eating or how it lived,” O’Connor said.
but, Big questions remainIf it wasn’t a fish, what else could it have used its long, pointy beak and incredibly strong teeth?
“The thick enamel is overwhelming, and it appears to have been weaponized,” said Clark, who has studied modern birds to understand what Longipteryx was doing with its beak. “One of the most common skeletal parts that birds use for aggressive displays is the proboscis, or beak. It makes sense to have a weaponized beak, because keeping the weapon away from the rest of the body would help prevent injury.”
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Some modern hummingbirds have a keratinous projection near the tip of their snout, which is another name for a beak. This projection is called Longipteryx And these weaponized beaks are used to correct each other. Hummingbird’s Weaponized Beak They have evolved at least seven times to allow competition for resources. Clark Longipteryx Teeth and beaks may have also been used as weapons and may have evolved through social and/or sexual selection.
The team hopes that this study will shed light on some of the other broader questions in paleontology: what stories lie beneath fossilized skeletons?
“We’re breaking new ground in the study of these early birds, encouraging paleontologists to look at structures like beaks and think about the complex behavior of these animals beyond simply feeding,” O’Connor says. “There are lots of factors that could have shaped the structures we see.”
