Cretaceous bird from Brazil informs the evolution of the avian skull and brain.

ABSTRACT: A dearth of Mesozoic-aged, three-dimensional fossils hinders understanding of the origin of the distinctive skull and brain of modern (crown) birds¹. Here we report Navaornis hestiae gen. et sp. nov., an exquisitely preserved fossil species from the Late Cretaceous of Brazil. The skull of Navaornis is toothless and large-eyed, with a vaulted cranium closely resembling the condition in crown birds; however, phylogenetic analyses recover Navaornis in Enantiornithes, a highly diverse clade of Mesozoic stem birds. Despite an overall geometry quantitatively indistinguishable from crown birds, the skull of Navaornis retains numerous plesiomorphies including a maxilla-dominated rostrum, an akinetic palate, a diapsid temporal configuration, a small cerebellum and a weakly expanded telen

SUBMITTER: Chiappe LM 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC11560842 | biostudies-literature | 2024 Nov

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature