A joint research team of scientists from China and other countries announced last Thursday that they had discovered a new species of ancient bird fossilized in amber in northern Myanmar. 

According to the team, the new specimen includes a partial right hindlimb and feathers from an adult or subadult bird. Its foot, of which the third digit is much longer than the second and fourth, is distinct from those of all other currently recognized Mesozoic and extant birds. 

"We can see the digit is very long. With its long third digit, the bird can better grasp tree trunks and it can also hook insects out from them, so this is a special hunting method, which is not seen in other bird species of today," said Xing Lida, an associate professor at the China University of Geosciences (Beijing). 

Birds are among the most diverse of vertebrate and there are about 10,500 bird species. The amber encasing the bird, measuring about 3.5 cm long and weighs 5.5 grams, dates back to the Cretaceous Period and the Cenozoic Era.

"The amber was formed nearly 100 million years ago during the early stage of the late Cretaceous Period and there were many ancient birds, dinosaurs, lizards and newts at that time," Xing said. 

The research was conducted by paleontologists from the China University of Geosciences (Beijing), the Royal Saskatchewan Museum of Canada, the Chinese Academy of Sciences and the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles. 

The findings have been published in the academic journal Current Biology. 

(Cover image via screenshot, provided by Xing Lida's research team.)

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