World’s oldest bird discovered
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A newly discovered 66-million-year-old fossil indicates that “modern” birds survived the asteroid impact that caused the mass extinction of all large dinosaurs at the end of the Cretaceous period
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Asteriornis maastrichtensis: Well preserved skull and other bone fragments found in rock from limestone quarry in Belgium
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NETHERLANDS
North Sea
UK
BELGIUM 
FRANCE
GERMANY
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100km 60 miles

1cm

Skull has features seen in present-day ducks and chickens

Asteriornis provides earliest direct glimpse of modern birds during initial stages of their evolutionary history

Scientists believe Asteriornis weighed just under 400 grams and may have been shore-dwelling bird
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Asteriornis: 66.8-66.7 million years old. Dates from less than one million years before asteroid impact
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MESOZOIC ERA Age of the dinosaurs

CENOZOIC ERA

Triassic
Jurassic 
Cretaceous
Early humans

250 million years ago 200 150 100 50 0

Archaeopteryx: 150 million  years ago. Believed to be link between dinosaurs and modern birds

Dinosaurs wiped out 66.02 million years ago
           
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Pictures: Phillip Krzeminski, Daniel J. Field, University of Cambridge     
Sources: Nature, University of Cambridge
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