Juan Benitoさんのイラストまとめ

@Nature @Torresaurus_rex @PeiChenKuo3 @fieldpalaeo This is all reflected in our name for the fossil, referencing the two-faced Janus, Roman god of beginnings and endings. Janavis, one of the last toothed birds, lived alongside the early modern bird, Asteriornis (wonderchicken). The twilight of one Era, and the dawn of the next!

@Nature @Torresaurus_rex @PeiChenKuo3 Janavis is a stem bird (outside the living bird clade), so its similar pterygoid shape to those of ducks and chickens likely suggests that the ancestor of all living birds must have had a flexible palate, contrary to what we thought for over 150 years.

@Nature Non-avian dinosaurs have solid palates, and palates are rarely preserved amongst Mesozoic birds, so little reason to think otherwise! Unfused palates are known in the bizarre Hesperornithes, and evidence in Ichthyornis from @Torresaurus_rex et al. showed something was going on.

Our new bird is coming out today in @Nature!

Meet Janavis finalidens, a large gull-like toothed bird with lots to say about the evolution of modern birds. Janavis’ palate overturns more than 150 years of ornithological paradigm!

https://t.co/hBy0nEYigR