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The discovery of a creature described as similar to a “prominent toucan bird” that lived about 68 million years ago has overturned assumptions about the diversity of birds that lived with the dinosaurs.
The bird’s thin skull, which scientists have dubbed Falcatakely forsterae, can be easily missed and is less than three inches long.
In fact, it had been in the accumulation of excavated fossils for years, before a CT scan suggested that the specimen deserves more attention.
Its long, sickle-shaped beak, though toucan-like, turned out to be something never seen before in the fossil record.
…and that. Pat, her colleagues, and I have been working on this art for a while, so it’s great to finally see it.
Note that there are tons of PR material for Falcatakely, or “Flying Razor Face” as it is nicknamed, to interact with at https://t.co/dvXxd4FHSZ. pic.twitter.com/jcrjEu5ipo
– Mark Witton (@MarkWitton) November 25, 2020
Patrick O’Connor, the lead author of the new creature study, told AFP that Mesozoic birds, between 250 and 65 million years ago, had “relatively unspecialized noses (snouts).”
“Falcatakely completely changed the game, documenting a long, tall beak unlike anything known in the medieval era,” added O’Connor, professor of anatomy and neuroscience at Ohio State.
The skull was presented, described in a study published Wednesday in the journal NatureOther surprises.
While Falcatakely’s face was quite familiar to modern birds such as toucans, the bones that make up its face bear little resemblance to those of modern creatures.
“Despite the general face shape similar to modern birds like toucans, the basic skeleton is very similar to non-avian dinosaurs, like Deinonychus and Velociraptor,” O’Connor said.
This “turns around what we know about the anatomy of medieval birds.”
The fossil was originally collected in 2010 in northwestern Madagascar.
When the researchers finally turned their attention seven years later, they found a problem: The skull and beak were too fragile to be removed for examination.
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So the team used some form of high-resolution imaging and digital modeling to “anatomize” the bones. They then used 3D printers to reconstruct the skull and compare it to other known species.
What they found was an almost unlikely animal, according to Daniel Field of the Department of Earth Sciences at the University of Cambridge, who reviewed the study. He added that among the nearly 200 species of birds known at the time, none had a “skull that looked like something like Falcatakely.”
O’Connor said this discovery is evidence of the huge potential gaps that remain in our knowledge of the birds that lived with the dinosaurs.
“There is a period of more than 50 million years in which we do not know anything about the evolutionary history of birds,” he said.
Finding healthy fossils of birds from this period is relatively rare, because their lightweight skeletons were generally too delicate to be well preserved.
The research team, which has been working in the area of Madagascar where Falcatakely was found since the mid-1990s, is continuing their excavation work, and O’Connor is also excited about what can be discovered.
He also hopes to explore why Falcatakely has its peak.
Source: ScienceAlert
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