Unearthing the ‘Wonderchicken’: How a 67-Million-Year-Old Fossil Rewrites the Origins of Modern Birds
Asteriornis maastrichtensis, as it’s formally known, actually survived the asteroid that wiped out the dinosaurs.
“It’s like a turducken,” co-author Daniel Field, a vertebrate paleontologist at the University of Cambridge, quipped. Indeed, Wonderchicken features a “never previously seen mashup of ducklike and chickenlike features.”
D.J. Field/University of CambridgeA 3D-Printed replica of the small skull of the Asteriornis Maastrichtensis, otherwise known as Wonderchicken.
The fossils, which include a perfectly preserved skull and a few limbs, were discovered inside a small rock in Belgium. The rock was made of hardened marine sediments and the few bones that were poking out of it appeared insignificant at first. But the estimated age of the bones was enough to pique Field’s interest.
The team used a process called method tomography, which is essentially a kind of X-ray, to peek inside the rock without destroying the fossils.
When the team identified a small bird skull, they almost couldn’t believe their eyes.
“The timeline was: See the skull, scream ‘Holy s—,’ give my Ph.D. student a high five, and then start calling it the Wonderchicken,” Field said barely masking his initial surprise.
The Wonderchicken is thought to have had wings, a beak, and was roughly quail-like in size. Interestingly, only the front part of the Wonderchicken’s skull, including its beak, are actually chicken-like. Thus, Field believes that A. maastrichtensis was not a picky eater, just like modern chickens.
“A barnyard chicken will eat anything you put in front of it,” Field explained. Which is why, unlike a lot of birds, chickens don’t have a specialized beak shape. Instead, they have a beak that allows them to have a more diverse diet. It’s likely that the survival of the Wonderchiken depended on a varied diet.
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