A tiny fossil belonging to a prehistoric baby bird which lived 127 million years ago has been discovered by scientists in Spain, reports said Wednesday.
The fossil, which is believed to belong to a prehistoric bird species called Enantiornithes, measures less than five centimeters and is thought to have weighed 3 ounces (85 grams) when it was alive, making it amongst the tiniest known Mesozoic avian fossils ever found.
It was discovered in the Las Hoyas fossil deposits in Spain.
The lead author of the study, Fabien Knoll, from The University of Manchester's Interdisciplinary Centre for Ancient Life (ICAL), School of Earth and Environmental Sciences, and the ARAID -- Dinopolis in Spain said that scientists can look at a variety of evolutionary traits by analyzing the bone development, Science Daily reported.
The tiny fossil will be analyzed by British, Spanish, Swedish and American scientists and the findings are expected to shed light on the development of earliest bird species.
