Baby bird fossil from Spain

[Jonathon Woolf <jwoolf@erinet.com>]

Wire stories from AP and UPI today told of a HOT new fossil find from
the Pyrenees Mountains of Spain: the fossilized remnants of a baby bird
that
lived around 130 million years ago.  Apparently it was first found
almost
eight years ago by an amateur fossil-hunter, but only recently came to
the
attention of Spanish paleontologists.

The four-inch-long hatchling, the oldest fossil baby bird ever found,
included dinosaur-type skull and teeth, plus definite evidence of
feathers
and enough of the wing, shoulder, and breastbone to tell that it was
more
like modern birds in those features.  When fully grown, it would
probably
have been a better flyer than the older "first bird" _Archaeopteryx_. 
The
new fossil is thought to represent a new species, but has not yet been
given
a formal scientific name.

The hatchling bird's bones include clusters of small holes and bone
structure
indicative of rapid growth, both features also found in modern birds. 
The
find is interpreted (by almost everyone _except_ Alan Feduccia <g>) as
further evidence that birds evolved from theropod dinosaurs.

A full report on the fossilized hatchling bird will be published in this
week's
edition of the journal SCIENCE.

                                                      JSW