Eocene Fossil of Hummingbird-Swift Relative Found in Wyoming

Sci-News.com ^ | Thursday, May 2, 2013 | unattributed

[SunkenCiv]

First collected in southwestern Wyoming in a fossil site known as the Green River Formation, Eocypselus rowei lived about 50 million years ago. It was a small creature about 12 cm long (from head to tail), and weighed less than an ounce...

The fossil is unusual in having exceptionally well-preserved feathers, which allowed the researchers to reconstruct the size and shape of the bird’s wings in ways not possible with bones alone. Feathers account for more than half of the bird’s total wing length...

The analysis suggests that the bird was an evolutionary precursor to the group that includes today’s swifts and hummingbirds.

Given the differences in wing shape between these two closely related groups of birds, the researchers have puzzled over how swift and hummingbird flight came to be. Finding fossil relatives like this specimen is the key to figuring that out.

Hummingbirds have short wings relative to their bodies, which makes them good at hovering in mid-air. Swifts have super-long wings for gliding and high-speed flight. But the wings of Eocypselus rowei were somewhere in between...

The shape of the bird’s wings, coupled with its tiny size, suggest that the ancestors of today’s swifts and hummingbirds got small before each group’s unique flight behavior came to be...

Closer study of the feathers under a scanning electron microscope revealed that carbon residues in the fossils – once thought to be traces of bacteria that fed on feathers – are fossilized melanosomes, tiny cell structures containing melanin pigments that give birds and other animals their color.

“The findings suggest that the ancient bird was probably black and may have had a glossy or iridescent sheen, like swifts living today. Based on its beak shape it probably ate insects.”

[SunkenCiv]

Specimen of Eocypselus rowei (Daniel T. Ksepka et al)

[SunkenCiv]

GGG managers are SunkenCiv, StayAt HomeMother & Ernest_at_the_Beach	join list or digest view topics view or post blog bookmark post a topic subscribe
I'm sure this will cause a *flap*. /rimshot! To all -- please ping me to other topics which are appropriate for the GGG list.

[Sacajaweau]

It’s a damn bird....big whoop....How much grant money will this 50 year study cost us?

[ClearCase_guy]

“The findings suggest that the ancient bird was probably black and may have had a glossy or iridescent sheen, like swifts living today.

So, at least in terms of color, 50 million years of evolution have yielded ... no real change.

[beaversmom]

Ping

[John Valentine]

So, at least in terms of color, 50 million years of evolution have yielded ... no real change.

Your point being?

[Paleo Conservative]

So, at least in terms of color, 50 million years of evolution have yielded ... no real change.

Not true. Hummingbirds are very colorful and iridescent, while swifts are black and iridescent.

[SunkenCiv]

Thanks Paleo Conservative!