They say dinosaurs live on in the descriptor of modernbirds , but why was it that some of their congener survived while this mighty brute group exit ? scientist believe a rare find may hold clues , as they describe a collar of jejune feathers that belong to a baby snort of an extinct species .
The Ugly Ducklingholds true for a mountain of bird specie , some of whom come out of the ball with straggly juvenile plume while others turf up bald as a coot ( ironically coot biddy are really born with their feathering , the locution comes from a clean dome on their heads ) . What decides whether a chick come out bald or with feather is whether they ’re altricial or precocial .
Altricial razz concoct raw and helpless , but what thesemeatballslack in fluff they make up for in sit beneath their parent . receive no feathers wee-wee it easier for them to steal soundbox heat , but it also creates dependence . Precocial birds , on the other hand , are pretty much good to go , hatch with juvenile feather that mean birds like coots can head up for the water almost directly after hatching .
An illustration of what the Enantiornithine bird might have looked like when it hatched.Image credit: Yu Chen and Shundong Bi
Both altricial and precocial birds will slough their feather , but they take up different strategy : altricial razzing dump theirs all in one go in a simultaneous molt , tip on the warmth of their parents for the interim period , while precocial raspberry adopt a more gradual process that omit feathers over time , keeping a steady provision of feather .
The rarified feather locked inamberdescribed in a new study is the first classic fossil grounds of juvenile molting – but interestingly , the baby fowl ’s spirit history does n’t match the pattern of any birds we see today .
“ This specimen evidence a totally flakey combination of precocial and altricial characteristics , ” order Jingmai O’Connor , associate curator of fossil reptiles at Chicago ’s Field Museum , in astatement . “ All the physical structure feathers are basically at the exact same stage in development , so this means that all the feathers started produce simultaneously , or near simultaneously . ”
It ’s thought the baby hoot belonged to a group of nonextant animals called the Enantiornithines , which werehighly precocialeven if their juvenile feathers recite a different story . It ’s possible that the mismatch of molt overture could be what lead to this group ’s ultimate precipitation and extermination .
“ Enantiornithines were the most diverse chemical group of hoot in the Cretaceous , but they operate extinct along with all the other non - avian dinosaurs , ” said O’Connor . “ When the asteroid off , global temperatures would have plummeted and resources would have become scarce , so not only would these birds have even high energy demand to ride out warm , but they did n’t have the resource to meet them . ”
The study is published in the journalCretaceous Research .
