January 22, 2014

OLD BIRD, NEW WORLD: DID THE SOUTH AMERICAN HOATZINS ORIGINATE IN EUROPE?


Where did hoatzins come from? These unusual birds, only one species of which exists in South America today, originated in the Old World. Studies of the oldest known fossils of Hoatzin ancestors have now shown that these birds existed around 34 million years ago in Europe. Paleornithologists at the Senckenberg Gesellschaft für Naturforschung and Flinders University in Adelaide published their findings this week in the specialist journal “Naturwissenschaften”.