From whom came the modern chicken and duck?
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Each modern animal is a distant ancestor, who lived millions of years ago. For example, amphibians are creatures like frogs came from the so-called elpistostege, who first learned to use them. But the ancestor of modern chickens and ducks is an ancient creature that the scientific community is still the name Asteriornis maastrichtensis or simply the "miracle chicken". The remains of extinct birds have been found in 2020 in the mines of the Dutch city of Maastricht a group of scientists under the leadership of Daniel field. You have interesting, looked like the first chicken in the world?
About the oldest ancestor of modern chickens was described in a scientific journal . During excavations on the territory of one of the limestone mines involved in the study of ancient creatures, paleontologists found the stone. Inside it was clearly the skeleton of an ancient bird, but because if you attempt to retrieve the bones, the remains could be damaged, the scientists decided not to risk. Instead, they scanned the fossil with computer tomography, which allows us to look not only inwards, but also to study the structure of various objects.
Fossil, inside which were found the remains of the oldest birds in the world
the oldest bird
As it turned out, inside the fossils are not preserved whole skeleton of a bird, and only the skull and a few limb. Despite this, scientists were able to identify the animal has several characteristics that are typical and ducks. The head of the ancient establishment was very similar to chicken — it had a beak, with which it could eat like the seeds of plants and insects. But from the ducks he got paws, with the help of which you can walk on land and swim in water. Judging by the size of the skeleton, "wonder chicken" was so small he could fit in the palm of an adult. According to the calculations of paleontologists, ancient weighed less than 400 grams.
According to the artists, chicken Asteriornis maastrichtensis looked like this
It is believed that the ancestor of modern chickens lived in the Cretaceous period, about 66 million years ago. At the same time, our planet was inhabited by some of the most well-known dinosaur: a giant iguanodons with a body length of 18 meters, the bloodthirsty tarbosaurus, and also tiny and always angry velociraptors. About the kind of lifestyle led by the ancient chicken, the scientists is still unknown. But there is speculation that they lived in relatively open areas and avoided the forests. This theory did not arise in a vacuum.
the Ancient chicken lived side by side with tarbosaurus
the reason for the extinction of the dinosaurs
The fact that the existence of modern chickens and ducks suggests that ancient "wonder chicken" survived the so-called Cretaceous-Paleogene extinction. In that time, from the face of our planet has been erased many large animals is approximately 16% marine and 18% of the inhabitants of the land. The reason for their extinction is not precisely unknown, but one theory says that then fell to Earth by an asteroid or some other large celestial body. This event became the reason of occurrence of forest fires, which could have died a land of creation. But the "wonder chicken" lived — so they were in the woods not so much time.
According to paleontologist Daniel field, this discovery was the most exciting in his entire career. And all because the bones of birds have a high brittleness and low weight, which are rarely preserved to the present day. But the bones of the Asteriornis maastrichtensis miraculously survived, and now we know about another ancestor of modern animals.
Bones of birds are very fragile, so quick to decompose. Pictured is the skeleton of the Dodo bird, which became extinct in the XVII century
In General, the study of the progenitors of the present day animals is very interesting. Right now you can read about who is considered the ancestor of poisonous Scorpions. Or pay attention to our article about that is very similar to the present inhabitants of the icy regions in our planet.
Chicken is the most numerous and widespread poultry
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