About 150 million years ago, in a coastal lagoon in what is now southern Germany, the oldest known bird gobbled up food with a beak built for efficient eating. It’s finely tuned mouth anatomy, revealed in a newly analyzed fossil, may have helped it generate the energy required to fly, researchers report February 2 in The Innovation.
Called Archaeopteryx, the animal had a toothed beak, hooked claws for grasping or climbing and feathered wings that it used for gliding and short bursts of flight. It is the earliest dinosaur that scientists also classify as a bird.
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