In Russia, first spotted toothy birds

In Russia, first spotted toothy birds

A group of Russian paleontologists have published the first for the Old world discovery of ichthyornis — classic toothy bird, previously known for the large number of bones from North America. Ichthyornis in significant numbers found in the U.S., Canada and Mexico, but never in the Old world. A study published in the journal Cretaceous Research.

Unique a new find from the Saratov region is a fragment of a tibia length of about one and a half centimetres, to which it is possible to conclude that this was a bird very similar to ichthyornis. It comes from the Cenomanian sediments of the century of the Cretaceous period (100-94 million of years ago) — same time and date from the earliest finds of ichthyornis in North America, this means that shortly after its origin ichthyornis had the widest distribution in the Northern hemisphere.

Secrets of the Planet: In the Volga region first discovered by the American “bird with teeth” ichthyornis https://t.co/C08etXrzA8 pic.twitter.com/ofE9AjFTFI

— Events – Facts (@PlanetSob) may 18, 2017

Ichthyornis — close relatives of modern birds. They had in General the same structure of the body, like living birds, and General appearance, judging by the proportions, was similar to the seagulls. The device of the wing suggests that they are well flown, and the structure of the hind limbs gives them water birds. Like modern sea birds, ichthyornis had well-developed nasal glands who threw out the excess salt from the body. Taken together, this means that ichthyornis could overcome the vast expanse of water, and this explains their distribution in the Cretaceous period.

One of the few serious differences of ichthyornis from modern birds is the presence of teeth. Most likely, this is due to the imperfection of the structure of their skull. Modern poultry production is compressed in both jaws like tweezers, the so — called kinetic art of the skull. From primitive ichthyomyzon kinetic art, apparently, was underdeveloped, and for effective retention of production they had teeth, which they simply inherited from their ancestors.

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