Nov 19, 2018
After forests recovered from their devastation by the Cretaceous mass extinction 66 million years ago, the few surviving dinosaurs quickly radiated into vacant arboreal niches. Among these new tree-dwelling birds, the most diverse were members of the clade Telluraves, a group that would give rise to hawks, owls, hornbills, kingfishers, woodpeckers, falcons, parrots, songbirds, and many more.
Here are a few 47-million-year-old telluravians whose fossils were found in the Messel Shale of Germany.
