Cretaceous duck

The partial skeleton, found on Vega Island, western Antarctica, in 1992, is clearly a waterfowl and is "most closely related to Anatidae," a bird classification which includes modern ducks, they said.

That requires a rethink of the "big bang" bird theory, for it implies that the forerunners of modern ducks, chickens, ostriches and emus were around during the Cretaceous, authors said in a study published in Thursday's Nature.

"At least duck, chicken and ratite bird relatives were co-extant with non-avian dinosaurs," the authors wrote.

The find has been baptized Vegavis iaii.

PRESS release here.

Posted by David on January 21, 2005 10:06 AM