Unusual feathers preserved in 100-million-year-old Cretaceous amber could have been used as defensive decoys
Pierre Cockx/RSM
Unusual feathers preserved in 100-million-year-old Cretaceous amber could have been used as defensive decoys
Pierre Cockx/RSM
Like modern birds, Confuciusornis had a toothless beak, but close relatives of modern birds such as Hesperornis and Ichthyornis were toothed, indicating that the loss of teeth occurred convergently in Confuciusornis and living birds.
It is the oldest known bird to have a beak.[1] It was named after the Chinese moral philosopher Confucius (551–479 BC). Confuciusornis is one of the most abundant vertebrates found in the Yixian Formation, and several hundred complete, articulated specimens have been found.[2]
Distinguishing traits
Confuciusornis shows a mix of basal and derived traits. It was more “advanced” or derived than Archaeopteryx in possessing a short tail with a pygostyle (a bone formed from a series of short, fused tail vertebrae) and a bony sternum (breastbone), but more basal or “primitive” than modern birds in retaining large claws on the forelimbs, having a primitive skull with a closed eye-socket, and a relatively small breastbone.
At first the number of basal characteristics was exaggerated: Hou assumed in 1995 that a long tail was present and mistook grooves in the jaw bones for small degenerated teeth.[7]
Skull
The skull of Confuciusornis was equipped with a pointed toothless beak. It was relatively heavy-built and immobile, incapable of the kinesis of modern birds that can raise the snout relative to the back of the skull. This immobility was caused by the presence of a triradiate postorbital separating the eye socket from the lower temporal opening, as with more basal theropod dinosaurs, and the premaxillae of the snout reaching all the way to the frontals, forcing the nasals to the sides of the snout.[8]
The sublime efficiency of nature seems boundless, at least to me it does. It’s helpful and intriguing when you post here on such topics.
A good engineer may incorporate such constructions into ways that produce better aircraft.
Off Topic: I read about an inventor who looked at how a cat’s tongue scooped water from a pool. This lead to Virgina Tech, MIT and Princeton collaborating on a study featuring gravity issues. The lapping of domestic cats is governed by the competition between inertia and gravity, wrote Sunghwan Jung, Asst. Prof. of engineering science and mechanics at Virgina Tech. In essence, this action shows a ‘way of defeating gravity!”
As seen in Virgina Tech Daily, Nov. 12, 2010.
Bkmk
The ground nesting birds that I’m familiar with all have white tail feathers under darker ones. When they flush, they flare their tails, giving predators a visual effect to grab at. I’ve seen cats spitting out mouthfulls of tail feathers.
Looks like scissor tails to me.
Remarkable how leftists can be avowed evolutionists yet at the same time demand central planning to solve all problems.
Hayek’s emergent order not only proscribes a healthy political economy, it explains evolution.
Typical Chinese quality control...
