The bird of the Dino era had the head of a velociraptor and the beak of a toucan

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In what might be one of the strangest mixtures of animals, scientists have found the 68-million-year-old fossilized skull of an early bird with a Velociraptor– a toucan-like face and a toucan-like beak, according to a new study.

This crow-sized bird lived in northwestern Madagascar during the Late Cretaceous, when dinosaurs traveled the Earth. And his bizarre beak face made it unique.

“Mesozoic birds [the dinosaur era], or at any time for that matter, don’t have faces built like that, ”said study co-investigator Patrick O’Connor, professor of anatomy at Ohio University, in a statement. E-mail.

Related: Photos: cousin Velociraptor had short arms and feathery plumage

Researchers found the bird’s partial but “superbly preserved” skull in 2010 in a muddy block of sandstone. They didn’t scan him until 2017, O’Connor said. At that time, they realized that this 3-inch-long (8.5 centimeter) skull – so small it could fit in the palm of your hand – had “a beak never seen before in the Mesozoic”, Study co-researcher Alan Turner, associate professor of anatomy at Stony Brook University in New York City, told Live Science in an email.

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Only the skull of Falcatakely forsterae, an early riser with a face like Velociraptor, was found, but here's what the rest of his body might have looked like. — Only the skull of Falcatakely forsterae, an early riser with a face like Velociraptor, was found, but here’s what the rest of his body might have looked like. (Image credit: Mark Witton)

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A graphic showing the bird's skull (top left) and micro-CT scans of it before and after digital assembly. — A graphic showing the bird’s skull (top left) and micro-CT scans of it before and after digital assembly. (Image credit: P. O’Connor, A. Turner, J. Groenke and M. Witton)

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A profile of the toucan-billed bird Falcatakely forsterae.

A profile of the toucan-billed bird Falcatakely forsterae. (Image credit: Mark Witton)

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Toucans are known for their iconic beaks. — The new ancient bird had a bill similar to that of a modern toucan. (Image credit: Shutterstock)

Here’s why: In modern birds, the skeleton under the beak is largely formed by a single bone. “You can kind of think of this as a set of rules that all living birds follow,” from skinny-billed hummingbirds to big-billed shoe beaks, Turner said.

But in this new bird – nicknamed Falcatakely forsterae, a combination of Latin and Malagasy words describing the formidable beast’s small stature and its scythe-shaped beak – this “rule” of beak construction was not yet established. Instead, most Mesozoic birds, including Archeopteryx, had a muzzle more similar to their dinosaur ancestors, with both a bone below the beak and a large upper jaw.

“Falcatakely made up his face with the same bones and in the same way as an animal like Velociraptor “Said Turner.” What is remarkable is that with this ancestral arrangement of bones, Falcatakely has evolved a beak shape strongly reminiscent of modern birds with tall, long beaks. “

In other words, this toucan-like beak is an example of convergent evolution, when similar functionality evolves independently in separate groups. But Falcatakely evolved its long, superior beak tens of millions of years before modern birds such as toucans and hornbills, Turner said. “So it’s actually toucans and hornbills that have the convergent morphology. Falcatakely beat them, ”he said.

The study was published online Wednesday (November 25) in the journal Nature.

Originally posted on Live Science.

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