Detecting fossil fossils strange 99 million years in amber

An ancient fossil fossil 99 million years has been discovered by paleontologists and listed as new species.

According to Guardian, this fossil fossil is somewhat strange because the middle toe is longer than the other fingers. It is found in an amber from Myanmar.

Researchers said elongated toes resembled lemurs and lizards. Some other suggestions suggest that this is a sign of the earliest bird at the same time as the dinosaurs.

Picture 1 of Detecting fossil fossils strange 99 million years in amber
Fossil fossils are found in an amber from Myanmar.(Photo: Science Alert).

Jingmai O'Connor, a vertebrate animal researcher and co-author of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, said: "We have the legs of a 99 million-year-old small bird, preserved in The amber shape of this species is unlike any other known species ".

O'Connor and her team claim the bird is almost the same size as a sparrow and is a new species called Elektorornis chenguangi . The first word in this cluster means amber bird. This is the first bird to be wrapped in amber.

The bird's feet have 4 toes. The third finger is 20% longer than the lower leg and 41% lower than the second toe.

Picture 2 of Detecting fossil fossils strange 99 million years in amber
The Chinese Academy of Sciences studied and discovered that this is the bird's feet of a new species called Elektorornis chenguangi.(Photo: Science Alert).

Scientists have compared this bird to the only known species with inadequate toe lengths that are aye-aye monkeys. This is a lemur that uses its elongated fingers to pry larvae and insects away from the trunk.

Researchers believe that Elektorornis may have used his toes for similar purposes.

In addition, the team thinks that birds may have spent most of their time on trees instead of underwater or on the ground. Therefore, their toes grow longer to cling to tree branches more easily, like tree lizards.

In addition to unusually long toes, the bird also has mutated teeth and claws on its wings and primitive plumage. It lives in the mangrove forest along the coast with lizards, snakes and frogs.

Picture 3 of Detecting fossil fossils strange 99 million years in amber
The bird may have spent most of the time in the tree instead of in the water or on the ground.(Photo: Science Alert).

The bird's feet were found in an amber block from the Hukawng Valley in Myanmar in 2014. Initially, the merchants thought it was a lizard, but O'Connor's team quickly identified it as an ancient bird's feet. old.

Ms O'Connor said fossils speak of the strange lifestyle and shape of this early bird.

In 2018, another group of scientists found fossils of an ancient primitive spider wrapped in amber. The spider has a tail that is twice as long as its body and can swing from side to side to detect predators.

Daniel Field, a vertebrate researcher at Cambridge University, said: "The strange size of the foot Elektorornis shows that the evolutionary history of birds is unpredictable."

He described extremely well preserved fossils."Without fossils like this, we will never have direct evidence of the mysterious, strange evolutionary history of birds," Daniel said.

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