Scientists first discovered in ancient amber wings of birds. This was reported in the journal Nature Communications. The discovery proved that even in the middle of the Cretaceous feathers not much different from today.
Chinese paleontologist Xing Lida (Lida Xing) found two pieces of amber from Myanmar, within which preserved bones, feathers and leather wings. Stone kept even claw marks: most likely, the bird tried to escape from a sticky resin. Earlier on the birds of the Cretaceous period, scientists recognized only two-dimensional prints on the stone rocks.
The structure and arrangement of feathers found on the wing are the same as in modern birds. Bones in size were less than that of a hummingbird, and undeveloped. All this suggests that the wings belonged hatchling, though enantsiornisov (extinct along with the dinosaurs toothed birds). However, the feathers themselves more similar to “outfit” of adult birds likely enantsiornisy were born already prepared for adult life, bypassing the stage of the helpless chicks
In 2014, scientists have proposed a new explanation for the evolutionary success of birds.. Gave rise to the feathered dinosaurs, theropods – the only branch of the dinosaurs, the representatives of which over 50 million years continuously decreased in size. Becoming dwarfs the country’s giants, the ancestors of birds occupied new ecological niches and learned to climb trees, to plan and fly. As a result of these evolutionary innovations help birds survive the deadly for large lizards meteoric cataclysm.
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