‘Toucan-like’ weird, toothed bird lived alongside dinosaurs
Recommended for Middle Grades
Toucan birds are famous for their oversized, colourful bills (beaks). They are commonly found in South America’s hot and humid forests.
Recently, scientists have discovered a fossil, which looks similar to a “buck-toothed toucan”. This bird lived some 68 million years ago when dinosaurs roamed the Earth.
It was earlier believed that birds in the Mesozoic era (between 250 million and 65 million years ago) did not have any special beaks.
But the discovery of the Falcatakely bird with its long beak has changed this idea. A bird with a beak such as this has never seen before.
The fossil was originally collected in 2010 in northwestern Madagascar. The skull of the fossil is tiny, less than nine centimetres long. The fossil has a single preserved tooth, which could have been one of many.
While it had an overall face shape similar to modern birds, its skeleton is much more similar to dinosaurs like the velociraptor.
This discovery shows us how much more we have to learn about the birds that lived alongside dinosaurs. Fossils of birds from this era are hard to find as their skeletons were generally too delicate to be well preserved.
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