Vegavis Iaai is a kind of Anseriform birds that is already considered extinct And that was from the Vegaviidae family. This is the only well -known member of the Vegavis genre and it is known that it belongs to the clad of the Anseriforms.
He Vegavis Iaai lived during the upper chalk of Antarctica (Maastrichti stage), about 65 million years ago with modern birds, Vegavis is more related to the Van Ducks and Ganzen family (Anatidae), although it is not considered one of the direct ancestors.
Vegavis IAI: Ave extinguished End del Cetácico
Between sixty -Six million years ago, at the end of Chalk period” The impact of an asteroid near the Yucatan peninsulaIn Mexico, the extinction of all known dinosaurs caused except for birds. In this context, the Antarctica may have served as a refuge for nature. The fossil evidence suggests that in this area a tempered climate with lush vegetation was possible as an incubator for the first members of the group that now includes ducks and geese.
An article published in the magazine Nature It describes a new oldest modern bird use, an early family member of the current water birds who lived on Antarctica. The study, targeted Christopher Torres, postdoctoral fellow of the National Science Foundation (NSF) at the Heritage College of Osteopathic Medicine of the University of Ohio, Describe the almost complete skull of 69 million yearsthat belongs to a kind of extinct bird called Vegavis IAAI. The remains were discovered during an expedition in 2011 by the Paleontology project of the Antarctic Peninsula.
The new skull shows a long and pointed beak and a unique brain shape in all previously discovered well -known birds from the Mesozoic era, when not -Adviars dinosaurs and a foreign collection of primitive birds dominated the world. Instead of, Place these characteristics A route map In the group that includes all modern birds, Who represents the earliest evidence of an evolutionary radiation that has currently expanded over the entire planet.
“Few birds are so susceptible to generate so many discussions among paleontologists as Roadmap”, Says the most important author, Torres, now Professor at the University of the Pacific. “This new fossil will help to solve many of those discussions. The most important: where is it Roadworks In the tree of the bird life? “
What place does this species occupy in evolution?
20 years ago, the Study Coeur Julia Clarke from the University of Texas in Austin, and several colleagues reported for the first time Roads. At that time it was presented as an early kind of modern birds that was evolutionary in water birds. But modern birds are exceptionally rare before the extinction of the final chalk and studies More recently, this evolutionary position of Vegavis has questioned. The new monster described in this study has something that all the previous fossils of this bird were missing: an almost complete skull.
This new skull helps to dispel that skepticism, because it retains different characteristics, such as the shape of the brain and the bones of the mouth, whatE are compatible with modern birds, in particular aquatic. Unlike most of this type of animals, the skull retains traces of powerful jaw muscles, useful to overcome and immerse the resistance of water to catch fish.
Is Skull characteristics They are consistent with tracks in other parts of the skeletonwhat that suggests Roadmap He used his legs to push under water during the persecution of fish and other dams, a food strategy that differs from that of modern water birds and more comparable to those of some other birds such as Somormujos and Colimbos.
‘This fossil It emphasizes that Antarctica has a lot to tell us about the early stages of evolution From modern birds, ”says Patrick O’Connor, co -author of the study, professor at the University of Ohio and director of Earth Sciences and Space in the Museum of Nature and Science of Denver.
The fascinating Antarctica
The birds that are known in other parts of the planet at the same time are hardly recognizable according to current standards. In addition, Most of the few deposits that retain bird fossils They offer such incomplete copies that they only give some instructions about their identity, as happened to date with Roadmap.
“The few places with a Significant cold fossil register of the upper chalk, such as Madagascar and ArgentinaThey reveal an aviary of strange species, now extinct, with teeth and long and bone tails, only distant to modern birds. Something completely different seems to have happened in the boundaries of the southern hemisphere, especially in Antarctica, “said O’Connor.
The way in which Antarctic Continental mass helped to shape modern ecosystems In ancient times it is a research topic of scientists around the world. According to the Co -author, Matthew Lamanna, from the Carnegie Museum of Natural History, “Antarctica is in many ways the last boundary for the understanding of life during the era of dinosaurs through humanity.”
«This discovery is an example of the power of scientific research and the crucial role that our institution plays in the advance of the Knowledge about the deep history of the earth“, Said the President of the University of Ohio, Lori Stewart González.
“Large -scale projects such as these, in which students and postgraduate researchers participate, prepare the scientists of tomorrow to work together, Make science forward and treat the most important problems Faced with our planet, “O’Connor concludes.