Paleontologists have found the first complete skull of a controversial prehistoric bird. Known as Vegavis iaai, the bird thrived in late-Cretaceous Antarctica, then a tropical paradise. About a ...

A newly analysed fossil skull settles a palaeontological debate over Vegavis iaai, confirming it as a relative of ducks and geese that lived 69 million years ago ...

A 69-million-year-old fossilized skull unearthed in Antarctica could rewrite the history of modern birds. The nearly complete skull belongs to Vegavis iaai, a prehistoric waterfowl species that ...

The specimen belongs to a species of extinct bird known as Vegavis iaai, a relative of modern ducks and geese that lived some 69 million years ago—the same time Tyrannosaurus rex was stomping ...

Science Dinosaurs After the asteroid, the earliest bird ancestors thrived in Antarctica The duck-like Vegavis iaai had strong jaws for snatching fish. By Laura Baisas Published Feb 5, 2025 11:00 ...

The 68 million-year-old fossil belongs to an extinct species of bird known as Vegavis iaai that lived at the end of the Cretaceous period, when Tyrannosaurus rex dominated North America and just ...

A life reconstruction of Vegavis iaai, a late Cretaceous loon-size bird diving for fish in the shallow ocean off the coast of the Antarctic peninsula, with ammonites and plesiosaurs for company ...

For decades, scientists have wondered at the taxonomy of Vegavis iaai— an ancient avian specimen that lived in what is now Antarctica during the late Cretaceous period. A new study, in which ...

A recently analyzed near-complete fossil skull found in Antarctica has revealed Vegavis iaai to be the oldest known modern bird, according to a study published in Nature. 66 million years ago ...

Around 20 years ago, a team of paleontologists identified Vegavis iaai for the first time, citing a fossil from Antarctica, around 68 million years to 66 million years old. At the time of the ...

By James WoodfordA 69-million-year-old skull found in Antarctica has been identified as a relative of geese and ducks, making it the oldest known modern bird.It belongs to a species that was first ...