fossils Archives - American Ornithological Society

04 August 2021

Ostrich evolution revealed: Fossil finds shed new light on the evolution of the African ratite

By Gerald Mayr, Senckenberg Research Institute and Natural History Museum in Frankfurt Linked paper: Extinct crane-like birds (Eogruidae and Ergilornithidae) from the Cenozoic of Central Asia are indeed ostrich precursors …

(A) Schematic phylogenetic tree showing proposed position of Jacamatia luberonensis relative to extant and extinct taxa of Piciformes and relatives. (B) Artist’s view of J. luberonensis (watercolour painting © Anaïs Duhamel).

11 May 2020

AOS

A Tiny Fossil Reveals Part of the Complex History of Puffbirds and Jacamars in Europe

When the fragment of calcareous plate was unearthed in sunny southeastern France, there was a hint of the presence within it of small fossil bones.

photo showing many small fossil toe bones organized into compartments in a tray — The fossil toe bones of Golden and Bald eagles provide hints about how they adapted to Pleistocene megafauna extinctions. Photo by Oona Takano.

06 April 2020

AOS

900 Tiny Toe Bones Tell a Story About Prehistoric Eagles

Oona Takano’s research focuses on how something big — Pleistocene megafauna extinctions — affected something very small: the toe bones of eagles.

a young woman dressed for the outdoors stands on a brown hillside — Researcher Grace Musser in the field.

02 December 2019

AOS

What a Fossil Foot Can Teach Us About Ancient Relatives of Cranes

In ancient Chinese mythology, cranes were said to carry the souls of the dead to paradise.