|
Skull found of a bird as big as airplane |
|
|
|
Knowledge Base
|
|
Written by Team Josh
|
|
Tuesday, 30 September 2008 |
Researchers have found a Skull of a bird, which had wings that spanned five metres from tip to tip and had bony teeth with which to grab its food.
A well-preserved skull unearthed on the Isle of Sheppey, east of London. Named Dasornis emuinus, it has been dated to 50 million years ago.
Palaeornithologist Gerald Mayr of Germany’s Senckenberg Research Institute said: “Imagine a bird like an ocean-going goose, almost the size of a small plane! By today’s standards, these were pretty bizarre animals, but perhaps the strangest thing about them is that they had sharp, tooth-like projections along the cutting edges of the beak.”
Like all birds, the Dasornis did not have real teeth, which are made of enamel and dentine, the researcher said.
|
Trackback(0)
|
TrackBack URI for this entry
Subscribe to this comment's feed
