Baby Bird Found Fossilized in Amber

The remains of a baby bird have been discovered in a 99 million-year-old piece of Amber.

The baby bird belonged to a group of birds known as enantiornithes, which became extinct about 65 million years ago. It is the most intact specimen to be discovered in Burmese Amber to date. Nearly half of the body is preserved in the three-inch piece of Amber.

Mined in the Hukawng Valley in Myanmar, Burmese Amber deposits contain the largest variety of plant and animal life from the Cretaceous period. This discovery is very important in showing how these ancient toothed birds differ from the birds of today.

Image copyright Ryan McKellar