Unearthing the ‘Wonderchicken’: How a 67-Million-Year-Old Fossil Rewrites the Origins of Modern Birds
Imagine stumbling upon a fossil so extraordinary, it’s like finding a chicken and a duck had a prehistoric love child—something we now affectionately call the “Wonderchicken.” This isn’t just any fossil; it’s the oldest modern bird ever found, dating back a jaw-dropping 67 million years. Talk about the ultimate birdie throwback—this little quail-sized creature not only survived the catastrophic asteroid event that wiped out the dinosaurs, but it also rewrites the evolutionary history we thought we knew. What’s crazier? Its skull is a mind-boggling cocktail of both chicken and duck features, making scientists question whether picky eating was a luxury only later birds enjoyed. Could a versatile diet have been the secret sauce for survival when the world was literally ending? Buckle up, because this discovery is shaking up paleontology and changing how we think about the birds casually pecking around your backyard today. LEARN MORE
This is the oldest fossil of a modern bird ever found.
Phillip Krzeminski“Wonderchicken” is considered one of the most important discoveries of its kind.
We know that modern birds like chickens and turkeys are actually closely related to dinosaurs. But for some time, scientists have struggled to definitively place when modern birds evolved as we know them — until now.
According to Science News, a team of paleontologists has just discovered a 67 million-year-old skull of a chicken-duck hybrid believed to be the oldest modern bird fossil yet known.
It is also the earliest ancestor of chickens and ducks and was affectionately dubbed the “Wonderchicken.”
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