May 5, 2018

Fossil reconstruction and illustration of Ichthyornis dispar (Image courtesy Michael Hanson/Yale University. All rights reserved)

An article published in the journal “Nature” describes a research on the skull structure of Ichthyornis dispar, an ancient bird that lived almost 100 million years ago in North America. A team of researchers led by Yale University examined a complete skull and two pieces that were part of the first specimen of this species discovered in 1870 thanks to new technologies concluding that its characteristics represent a crucial moment in the evolution from dinosaurs to modern birds.