Discover - USA (2020-01 & 2020-02)

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Unique Ancient Bird

Preserved in Amber

BY GEMMA TARLACH

i

Smaller than a sparrow, a 99-million-year-old bird

preserved in amber made some very big news

in July.

“I’ve never seen anything like this, or even close,” says

paleontologist Jingmai O’Connor of Beijing’s Institute

of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology.

O’Connor is a co-first author on the Current Biology

paper that introduced the world to Elektorornis

chenguangi, a new species of Cretaceous bird known

from a single partial specimen.

Frozen in time in a piece of Burmese amber, the single

hindlimb of Elektorornis has traits not seen in any other

bird, living or extinct. The animal’s third toe is extremely

elongated — longer than the entire lower leg bone. And

on this bizarre supertoe are strange filaments so unique

they’re hard to describe, even for researchers studying

them: “Imagine a scale on a chicken foot in which the

distal end tapers into a very fine, almost hairlike bristle,”

says O’Connor.

These hairlike, yet also scalelike, structures are at

the base of the bird's unique toe. Which brings

us to the big question: How did Elektorornis use

that digit?

Without any similar bird to compare it with,

O’Connor and colleagues looked to the only

living animal with a single elongated digit: the

aye-aye, a species of lemur that uses its long third

finger to probe for insects in rotting wood. However,

the mammal also has a mouth made for gnawing,

so the parallels with a toothless bird only go

so far.

And so, for now, the true purpose of

Elektorornis’ bristled supertoe will remain

a mystery — and a source of scientific

delight.

“I love that new discoveries still reveal

animals so outside our expectations,”

says O’Connor. “Our imaginations are

so limited compared to the bizarre

forms natural selection can produce.”

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36

An artist’s

rendering

suggests

Elektorornis

chenguangi used

its long third toe to

find food (left). But

researchers don’t

really know why

the bird, preserved

in amber (above),

evolved the unique

digit, which is

longer than its

entire lower leg

bone (top).