25 June
2018
They're
some of the strangest birds in the world, known for their bright plumage and
their penchant for fruit.
The
turacos, or banana-eaters, are today found only in Africa, living in forests
and savannah.
A
beautifully preserved fossil bird from 52 million years ago is shaking up the
family tree of the exotic birds.
The
fossil's weird features suggests it is the earliest known living relative not
just of the turacos, but of cuckoos and bustards (large long-legged birds).
And the
fact the remains were unearthed in North America shows the distribution of
different birds around the globe would have been very different in the past.
The
banana-eaters
"Our
analyses show with some strong support that the fossil is the earliest known
representative of this group, the turacos, or the banana-eaters, that today are
only found in sub-Saharan Africa," said Dr Daniel Field, a vertebrate
palaeontologist in the Milner Centre for Evolution at the University of Bath.
"Although,
our fossil comes from western North America and it's about 52 million years
old."
The
attractive and colourful turacos of Africa are noisy, gregarious birds. They
feed mostly on fruits and enjoy bananas, as their name suggests.
Dr Field
said these fascinating birds, which he has photographed all over Africa, are a
group well known to bird watchers.
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