Earliest known seed-eating perching bird discovered in Fossil Lake, Wyoming

Date:  February 7, 2019

Source:  Field Museum

Most of the birds you've ever seen -- sparrows, finches, robins, crows -- have one crucial thing in common: they're all what scientists refer to as perching birds, or "passerines." The passerines make up about 6,500 of the 10,000 bird species alive today. But while they're everywhere now, they were once rare, and scientists are still learning about their origins. In a new paper in Current Biology, researchers have announced the discovery of one of the earliest known passerine birds, from 52 million years ago.

"This is one of the earliest known perching birds. It's fascinating because passerines today make up most of all bird species, but they were extremely rare back then. This particular piece is just exquisite," says Field Museum Neguanee Distinguished Service Curator Lance Grande, an author of the paper. "It is a complete skeleton with the feathers still attached, which is extremely rare in the fossil record of birds."

The paper describes two new fossil bird species -- one from Germany that lived 47 million years ago, and another that lived in what's now Wyoming 52 million years ago, a period known as the Early Eocene. The Wyoming bird, Eofringillirostrum boudreauxi, is the earliest example of a bird with a finch-like beak, similar to today's sparrows and finches. This legacy is reflected in its name; Eofringilllirostrum means "dawn finch beak." (Meanwhile, boudreauxi is a nod to Terry and Gail Boudreaux, longtime supporters of science at the Field Museum.)"

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