What can prehistory tell us about the origins of modern birds? Bhart-Anjan Bhullar from Yale University talks with us about how the discovery of a 95 million year old Ichthyornis fossil in 2014 revealed some unexpected insights into the minds — and mouths — of today’s birds. His article, “Complete Ichthyornis skull illuminates mosaic assembly of the avian head” was published on May 3, 2018 in Nature with Dan Field and six other researchers.

{{svg_share_icon}}

 

Websites and other resources

Neurocranium of the newly discovered Ichthyornis

Press Coverage

NPR |BBCThe GuardianReutersScience NewsIndependent

 

Bonus Clips

Patrons of Parsing Science gain exclusive access to bonus clips from all our episodes and can also download mp3s of every individual episode.

Support us for as little as $1 per month at Patreon. Cancel anytime.

Patrons can access bonus content here.


We’re not a registered tax-exempt organization, so unfortunately gifts aren’t tax deductible.

Hosts / Producers

Ryan Watkins & Doug Leigh

How to Cite

Watkins, R., Leigh, D., & Bhullar, B.-A.. (2018, July 10). Parsing Science – Prehistoric origins of birds. figshare. https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.6799199

Music

What’s The Angle? by Shane Ivers


Share a clip from the episode