Gobipteryx Sauriurae: Enantiornithes: Alexornithidae Locality: Khermeen Tsav, Gobi Desert, southern Mongolia Age: Late Cretaceous (Campanian), 75 million years ago One of the most earliest birds, Gobipteryx is known from two crushed skulls and lower jaws from Mongolia. In addition to this there are some embryonic skeletons and eggs (on display in the exhibition) that have been called Gobipteryx, but these may, in fact, belong to another equally ancient group of birds called the Enantiomithiformes. At the time that Gobipteryx lived, birds were just beginning to evolve into the groups known today. Birds as a group were derived from small carnivorous lizard-hipped dinosaurs (saurischians). The oldest vertebrate that has been called a bird is the first vertebrate with feathers, Archaeopteryx, from the Late Jurassic of Germany. During the end of the Age of Dinosaurs, primitive birds experimented with many different lifestyles, and it wasn't until the early stages of the Cenozoic, the Age of Mammals (beginning at 65 million years ago), that the broad outlines of modern groupings of birds could be seen. Gobipteryx still has many reptilian characteristics, for example one of the bones of the jaw, the quadrate, resembles bones in theropod dinosaurs. However, Gobipterix also had bird-like features as well. Many paleontologists regard Gobipteryx and a number of other Cretaceous birds as early experiments in 'birddom' that didn't give rise to any later birds, but tried out the avian lifestyle until crowded out by better 'models' which in turn did give rise to modern birds. Gobipteryx would have had feathers and probably would have been able to fly. |
