Fossil Reveals Weird, Toothed 'Toucan' That Lived Alongside The Dinosaurs

[Judi Lynn]

SARA HUSSEIN, AFP27 NOVEMBER 2020

The discovery of a creature described as resembling a "buck-toothed toucan" that lived some 68 million years ago has upended assumptions about diversity in the birds that lived alongside dinosaurs.

At less than nine centimetres (3.5 inches) long, the delicate skull of the bird scientists have dubbed Falcatakely forsterae might be easily overlooked.

In fact, it almost was, sitting in a backlog of excavated fossils for years before CT scanning suggested the specimen deserved more attention.

It turns out that its tall, scythe-like beak, while resembling the toucan, is something never before seen in the fossil record.

More:
https://www.sciencealert.com/fossils-reveal-weird-toothed-toucan-that-lived-alongside-the-dinosaurs

[myccrider]

1. Cool!

It’s possible that there once were many feathered flying things that weren’t that closely related to modern birds. Scientists have found so many small therapod dinosaurs with feathers living beside early birds (who are descended from therapod dinosaurs and are, cladistically speaking, still therapod dinosaurs but branched from that line at least 30 million years before the asteroid hit) that some of the mainline therapods may have evolved flight again. That would explain the skull morphology of the buck-toothed toucan - love that visual