Posted on 11/13/2018 9:14:47 AM PST by ETL
All birds evolved from feathered theropods the two-legged dinosaurs like T. rex beginning about 150 million years ago, and developed into many lineages in the Cretaceous period, between 146 and 65 million years ago.
But after the cataclysm that wiped out most of the dinosaurs, only one group of birds remained: the ancestors of the birds we see today.
Why did only one family survive the mass extinction? The newly-discovered fossil from one of those extinct bird groups, enantiornithines, deepens that mystery.
..."
Mirarce eatonis breast bone or sternum, where flight muscles attach, is more deeply keeled than other enantiornithines, implying a larger muscle and stronger flight more similar to modern birds.
The wishbone is more V-shaped, like the wishbone of modern birds and unlike the U-shaped wishbone of earlier avians and their dinosaur ancestors. The wishbone or furcula is flexible and stores energy released during the wing stroke.
What is most exciting, however, are large patches on the forearm bones. These rough patches are quill knobs, and in modern birds they anchor the wing feathers to the skeleton to help strengthen them for active flight, Dr. Atterholt said.
This is the first discovery of quill knobs in any enantiornithine bird, which tells us that Mirarce eatoni was a very strong flier.
We know that birds in the early Cretaceous, about 115 to 130 million years ago, were capable of flight but probably not as well adapted for it as modern birds, Dr. Atterholt said.
What this new fossil shows is that enantiornithines, though totally separate from modern birds, evolved some of the same adaptations for highly refined, advanced flight styles.
If enantiornithines in the late Cretaceous were just as advanced as modern birds, however, why did they die out with the dinosaurs while the ancestors of modern birds did not?
(Excerpt) Read more at sci-news.com ...
I bet so. :O)
It better be! Lol!
Obviously Birds predate dinosaurs........................
Incoming....!!!!
Sure they did!
ML/NJ
YAWN.
More “settled ‘science’”.
It had to be a strong flier so that it could carry stacks of Florida provisional ballots.
Reminds me of cowbirds and egrets hanging around bovines
It’s only GoreBull Warming-type “science” that is “settled”, over and done, no doubt about it.
Howard!! Waugh!!
Honored in the 20th century with a brand of tennis shoes.
Bodega Bay. Tippi Hedren. Phone booth.
*ping*
In a show called Animatus, South Korean artist Hyungkoo Lee uses the techniques of paleontologists to create the skeletons of familiar comic figures such as Donald Duck..
https://thewondrous.com/incredible-cartoon-skeleton-art-by-hyungkoo-lee/
Thanks fieldmarshaldj.
Does it taste like chicken?
Not sure, but there was a big bucket of fosillized coleslaw right next to the bird..
I’m guessing they nested in burrows.
There are owls, parrots and some sea birds who do so today.
Burrow nesters are protected from the global fires and are used to lower oxygen levels that followed the Chicxulub impact.
A few species of birds, small mammals (burrow dwelling?) a hand full of reptiles (buried egg nesting?) managed to survive.
Heres my take on the Chicxulube strike:
A Chicxulub-sized event rings the planet like a bell, any fault that is near its critical strain is apt to let loose.
Doctors and coroners have a term, coup contercoup, that means damage to the opposite side of the brain from where the skull was struck.
Imagine you are standing on the spot exactly on the opposite side from the strike. The shock waves race around the globe and come together (focus, if you will) right under your feet!
On a lower gravity bodies such as the moon, big impacts have delivered sufficient coup countercoup force to jet material off into space.
I dont doubt that nearby magma would be squirted up through the resulting shattered bedrock.
Add to that the fact that Chicxulub was a shallow water strike and the surrounding sea formed a wall around the white hot crater as it attempted to flood in. It was like a 120 mile wide rocket nozzle jetting vaporized seawater and any entrained atmosphere into space. As the crater was quenched, the force of the boiling reduced, and the remaining flood of sea water and air steam-cleaned half the planet.
It was a bad day.
On land nothing larger than a house cat survived. I suspect all the surviving animals were burrow dwellers, animals already used to breathing lower oxygen content than their larger peers. The thinned atmosphere was a final insult to the bigger surface dwellers.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.