Fossil find suggests ancestral bird beak was mobile

When it comes to understanding the earliest evolution of modern birds, beak structure is crucial. It was mainly differences in the beak — specifically, the structure of the bony palate in the roof of the mouth that supports the beak — that enabled researchers to distinguish between the earliest-known divergence of modern birds: their split into two daughter lineages.

On one side of that divergence is a group termed Palaeognathae, comprising flightless birds called ratites and flying birds called tinamous. On the other side is a group called Neognathae, which consists of all other living birds. Those names hint at the conventional idea about which beak type came first: Palaeognathae inherited their condition from pre-modern birds, whereas Neognathae have a palate thought to have arisen later.

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