Cretaceous Bird Fossil Suggests Similar Digestive Features As Modern Birds

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Sketch reconstruction of the enantiornithine bird with indigestible fish bones ejected as a pellet. es, esophagus; gz, gizzard; pe, pellet. M. Wang et al., Current Biology (2016).

Researchers studying a 120-million-year-old fossilized bird from China discovered a compacted, football-shaped cluster of fish bones nearby. Many birds form these so-called pellets out of indigestible food items (like bones) in their digestive tract, and then regurgitate them. This discovery is the world’s oldest bird pellet. And according to a new Current Biology study, it suggests that birds in the Early Cretaceous already had a digestive system resembling that of modern birds.