99 million year old bird found in amber.. Looks almost like a Sparrow to me

We have all seen some of the fossilized birds found from way back when.. OK they do resemble birds with flight feathers, toothy smiles and Gaspers on the leading edge of their wings.. I had figured that was about as good as it was going to get as far as far as ancient birds were concerned..WRONG!!

Burma/Myanmar is famous for its' amber mines and all the fashion jewelry they make from the mined amber.. In a lucky find... before the piece was further cut up, they found the remains of a 99 million year old bird that depending on color could pass for a Sparrow IMO.

A piece of amber found in Myanmar, originally destined to become a piece of jewelry, contains the most well-preserved dinosaur-era bird fossil ever found.

The amber didn’t contain an entire bird—only part of the skull, the spine, a wing, a foot, and a pelvis—the rest had been cut off by a local miner cutting and polishing the piece of amber so it would look better to buyers. Furthermore, something had squashed and distorted the animal before tree resin encased it. However, as tree resin has such incredible preservative properties, those body parts contained much more information than simple fossilized bones would have.

The article contains an illustration of what the bird might have looked like in life.. If accurate he could land on your bird feeder and you would probably think nothing of it unless maybe the colors of the feathers..
Many birds today, after they leave the nest, become branch hoppers for a few weeks until they gather the strength for extended flight. If I had to bet since the find is of a hatching it is quite possible he missed a branch and got trapped in the amber..
www.newsweek.com... n=rss&utm_content=/rss/yahoous/news

a reply to: 727Sky

Hatchling born with full plume? I'm not buying it. I don't know why but it just doesn't make sense considering what we know about today's birds. If it's genuinely the case then it suggests devolution...

originally posted by: 727Sky
OK they do resemble birds with flight feathers, toothy smiles and Gaspers


Wait.... do you think birds have teeth?

edit on 4-3-2018 by Quantumgamer1776 because: (no reason given)

edit on 4-3-2018 by Quantumgamer1776 because: (no reason given)

edit on 4-3-2018 by Quantumgamer1776 because: Pickles

originally posted by: Wide-Eyes
a reply to: 727Sky

Hatchling born with full plume? I'm not buying it. I don't know why but it just doesn't make sense considering what we know about today's birds. If it's genuinely the case then it suggests devolution...

The article said hatchling which bring to mind a bird freshly out of the egg...BUT.. birds even after a few weeks of being nestlings (fed by mom and dad in the nest) and then becoming branch hoppers are still considered young hatchlings by many. Once they move from the branches to full flight mode then they are not considered hatchlings/nestlings or anything else but birds.

Not my expertise other than I have rescued many a brancher from the clutches of cats who just want to kill for the fun of it. While in the brancher mode mom and dad are still feeding the chick ... The communication that goes on between the parent and chick is really interesting to watch.. Some sounds mean danger "freeze" while other sounds mean hurry "Hide"... or at least that is what I believe I observed..

I know a girl named Amber, I thought she is only about twenty one years old. She sure looks young for her age.

originally posted by: Wide-Eyes
a reply to: 727Sky

Hatchling born with full plume? I'm not buying it. I don't know why but it just doesn't make sense considering what we know about today's birds. If it's genuinely the case then it suggests devolution...

This appears to be a confusion of terms between "hatchling" and "fledgling" - I note that later in the original NatGeo article, the paleontologist says "fledgling."

Remember that birds grow at an astonishing rate. Note that by one week old, sparrows have many of the same feathers in the amber specimen and at 10 days old have flight feathers and are pretty good at flapping around.

originally posted by: Quantumgamer1776
OK they do resemble birds with flight feathers, toothy smiles and Gaspers


Wait.... do you think birds have teeth?

Yes, many of the ancient birds have teeth. Flexonormis howeii is one found here locally in Texas... birdy-bird from this same time period and it indeed has teeth (fun fact: I was in the lab that day when Kris Howe brought the specimen in..

a reply to: Byrd

Well heck, you learn something new everyday, thanks Byrd.

a reply to: 727Sky

That amber mine is the gift that just keeps giving , so many cool examples coming from there , they did well to spot the inclusion given the pieces muddy and messy appearance.

The question is , did it jump or was it pushed.

originally posted by: gortex
a reply to: 727Sky

That amber mine is the gift that just keeps giving , so many cool examples coming from there , they did well to spot the inclusion given the pieces muddy and messy appearance.

The question is , did it jump or was it pushed.

Dead, most likely, and fell. Birds are astonishingly fragile and die of all sorts of things, including pushing out of the nest by siblings.

a reply to: Byrd

including pushing out of the nest by siblings

That's where I'd put my money.

a reply to: rickymouse
And would you like to be encased in Amber?

originally posted by: crayzeed
a reply to: rickymouse
And would you like to be encased in Amber?

She is the daughter of a good friend of mine, kind of cute too. But, no, she is like one of the family.