Oldest hummingbird fossils found
A pair of 30 million-year-old fossils from southern Germany
are the oldest fossil hummingbirds, a researcher says. The
location of the finds is unexpected, because today the birds
are only known from the Americas.
In the latest edition of Science magazine, Dr Gerald Mayr
claims the fossils show many striking resemblances to modern
hummingbird groups.
The extinct hummingbirds may have influenced the shape of
some modern Asian and African flowers.
"Fossils of primitive hummingbirds have been found in the
Old World before, but it was a great surprise to find a bird
that looked so similar to the modern hummingbirds of the Old
World," Dr Mayr, of the Senkenberg Natural History Museum in
Frankfurt, told BBC News Online.
Other fossil hummingbirds have been found in Central
America, Europe and Asia, but they are either very different
from modern ones or are known from just a few bones.
The new fossils, which have been assigned to the species
Eurotrochilus inexpectatus, were endowed with long, nectar-
sucking beaks and wings designed for feeding while hovering.
They share key anatomical features on their wings with
modern hummingbirds. The primitive hummingbird Jungornis
tesselatus lacks these features.
Read the rest at BBC
news.bbc.co.uk3691169.stmOpen ↗
Posted by Robert Karl Stonjek.