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A new fossil discovery has provided vital information in understanding the evolution of bird intelligence. The fossil bird was identified by researchers from the University of Cambridge and the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County and was roughly the size of a starling. Named Navaornis hestiae, the bird was from the Mesozoic Era (age of dinosaurs) and lived approximately 80 million years ago in what is now Brazil. The fact of its well-preserved skull makes it one of the most significant of its kind.
The study aimed to digitally reconstruct the bird’s brain to determine the evolutionary origins of modern avian brains between the 150-million-year-old Archaeopteryx, the earliest known bird-like dinosaur, and modern birds. Findings suggest that Navaornis had a larger cerebrum than Archaeopteryx, indicating that it had more advanced cognitive abilities than the earliest bird-like dinosaurs. However, other areas of its brain were less advanced, which suggests that the bird had not yet developed the complex flight-control mechanisms of modern birds.
Professor Daniel Field from Cambridge’s Department of Earth Sciences, who was the senior author of the research, stated that modern birds, like crows and parrots, possess some of the most advanced cognitive abilities in the animal kingdom. Until now, it has been difficult to understand how and when the unique brains and intelligence of birds evolved. Dr Guillermo Navalón, the co-lead author of the study, was “awestruck” by the “one-of-a-kind” fossil has stated that it is only the first step in understanding the evolution of bird intelligence.
The Navaornis has filled a 70-million-year gap in the understanding of bird evolution between Archaeopteryx and modern birds. While the discovery is a significant breakthrough, the researchers saw it only as the first step to understanding bird intelligence. Dr Luis Chiappe, a co-lead author from the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County, confirmed that some of the birds flying over the heads of dinosaurs had a fully modern skull geometry more than 80 million years ago
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