Page 28 - ARUBA TODAY

A28 SCIENCE
Thursday 19 March 2020
'Wonderchicken' fossil reveals ancestor of today's birds

By MALCOLM RITTER AP Sci- in the aftermath of the
ence Writer asteroid strike, Field said.
New York (AP) — A tiny fos- Wonderchicken's beak
sil skull nicknamed "Won- shows no signs of a special-
derchicken" is giving scien- ized diet, he said.
tists a rare glimpse at early Scientists unconnected to
ancestors of today's birds. It the research were enthusi-
may be the oldest known astic.
fossil from this group. Kevin Padian, a paleon-
With a face like those of to- tologist at the University of
day's chicken-like birds and California, Berkeley, said
a back portion like that of the fossil provides the best
living duck-like birds, Won- evidence yet of when and
derchicken is " down near how the earliest ancestors
the bottom of the modern- of today's birds evolved.
bird family tree," said Daniel Genetic studies have sug-
Field of Cambridge Univer- gested that those ances-
sity. tors appeared tens of mil-
He and others announced lions of years earlier than
the find in a report released Wonderchicken, he said.
Wednesday by the journal But at this point the fossil re-
Nature. They named the cord shows no support for
creature Asteriornis maas- that, and there's no known
trichtensis, but let's stick fossil that is clearly from
with Wonderchicken. This March 2020 photo provided by researcher Daniel J. Field shows him holding a life-size 3D print this lineage that predates
Found in Belgium, it is some of the Asteriornis maastrichtensis "Wonderchicken" skull in Cambridge, England. Wonderchicken, he said.
66.7 to 66.8 million years Associated Press Julia Clarke, a fossil-bird
old. A previously reported expert at the University of
Antarctic fossil find is about tionary tree are not clear. It appeared as a block of out. After it was donated Texas at Austin, said the fos-
as old, but its precise age Field said the Belgian skull is broken rocks with some to a museum, Field tried CT sil "has a lot of information
and place on the evolu- slightly older. broken leg bones sticking scanning to get a better that can start to add to our
look at those bones. To his picture of the earliest steps"
Stuck home? Planets, moon astonishment, the scanning in the proliferation of living
revealed a well preserved birds species.
skull inside the rock "staring Fossils are snapshots, she
providing predawn entertainment out of the computer screen said, and "right now our
right at us."
photo album has almost
The leg bones let research- nothing in it" from this time
By MARCIA DUNN week? The planets and our Mars, Jupiter, Saturn and a ers estimate the creature period that relates to mod-
AP Aerospace Writer moon are providing some crescent moon will be clus- was the size of a very small ern-day birds. "Any new pic-
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. early morning entertain- tered together in the south- duck, weighing only about ture is of key importance."q
(AP) — Stuck at home this ment. eastern sky just before day- 14 ounces (395 grams). Its
break. Mercury will peek legs were long and slender,
above the horizon. and it was evidently a shore
All this is happening amid bird and it could probably
the earliest March equinox fly, Field said.
in 124 years. Wonderchicken lived just
The vernal equinox, which before the asteroid impact
marks the beginning of that's blamed for killing off
spring in the Northern Hemi- many species, most no-
sphere — and autumn in tably the giant dinosaurs.
the Southern Hemisphere That suggests the evolution
— will occur late Thursday of the family tree for mod-
night in the U.S. That's the ern-day-birds was in a very
earliest since 1896. early stage when the aster-
This is also a good time to oid struck, Field said.
spot Sirius, the brightest star Close relatives of Wonder-
In this March 10, 2020, file photo, vehicles are dwarfed as the in our night sky. chicken survived the cata-
nearly full moon rises in the distance in Shawnee, Kan. Barely 8.6 light-years away, clysm, and the fossil itself
Associated Press Sirius is especially brilliant shows some traits that have
this time of year. It's also been proposed as benefi-
known as the Dog Star be- cial for making it through,
cause it's in the Canis Major Field said. It was small, and
constellation. its legs suggest it did not
To spot Sirius, find Orion in live in trees, an important
the southern sky and follow factor since forests were
Orion's belt. The three stars thought to have been dev-
making up the belt point astated by wildfires.
toward Sirius, downward in "It also probably paid to
the Northern Hemisphere not be picky about what
and upward in the South- you are eating," since there
ern Hemisphere.q wasn't much on the menu