Research Paper on the Enantiornithine (Baby Bird caught 99 Milliion years ago in Burmese amber)

June 4, 2022 Dilawer Hussain

A baby bird from Dianosour time was caught in amber dated approximately back to 99 million years ago. The amber is 99 million years old according to scientists writing in the journal Gondwana Research.

Here are pictures of bird from different angles.

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Sizes and Measurements:-

Size: 86 mm x 30 mm x 57 mm,

weighs: 78.16 g,

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The bird belongs to the group of birds called Enantiornithes which extincted along with other spices of the time i.e. dinosaurs at the end of Cretaceous Period about 65 million years ago. The discovery is very interesting as it is providing wonderful information about the ancient birds in understanding that how they were different than modern birds. This discovery implements the most complete fossil which has been discovered till now in Burmese amber. It is minded in the Hukawng Valley in Northern Myanmar.

The new specimen, HPG-15-1, comes from the Angbamo site, Tanai Township (Myitkyina District, Kachin Province) of northern Myanmar. There has been publication of complete research paper on this fossil

Research Paper on This Amber

The original specimen is housed and displayed in the Hupoge Amber Museum (=HPG), Tengchong City Amber Association, China; the 3D reconstruction is available to researchers through the Dexu Institute of Palaeontology (=DIP), China.
The two pieces of amber forming HPG-15-1 were examined with a Leica MZ 12.5 dissecting microscope with a drawing tube attachment. Photographs were taken using a Canon digital camera (5D Mark III, MP-E 65MM F/2.8 1-5X) fitted to a macro rail (Cognisys), and were processed using Helicon Focus 5.1 and Adobe Photoshop CS5 software to increase depth of field in the images. These images were supplemented with photos taken under long wavelength UV light, mapping resin flows.

HPG-15-1 was scanned with a MicroXCT 400 (Carl Zeiss X-ray Microscopy, Inc., Pleasanton, USA) at the Institute of Zoology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing. A single scan of the entire piece was not possible due to its large size. The different parts of the bird were scanned separately. The head, neck, wing, and hind limbs, were scanned with a beam strength of 60 KV, and an absorption contrast and a spatial resolution of 18.3298 μm, 18.3298 μm, 3.7795 μm, and 25.5308 μm, respectively.

Results

The following bird parts are discussed in research paper. Unfortunately, the skull was split when the amber was cut (Figs. 1C; 2A-D). The ACCEPTED MANUSCRIPT ACCEPTED MANUSCRIPT rostrum is preserved in one section and the neck and most of the braincase in the other.