Fossil discovery in the Geiseltal Collection: researchers identify unique bird skull

Around 45 million years ago, a 4.6 feet-tall (1.40 metres) flightless bird called Diatryma roamed the Geiseltal region in southern Saxony-Anhalt. An international team of researchers led the Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg (MLU) and the Senckenberg Research Institute and Natural History Museum in Frankfurt report on the bird’s fully preserved skull in the scientific journal „Palaeontologia Electronica“. The fossil was unearthed in the 1950s in a former lignite mining area in the Geiseltal in Germany. It was initially misclassified and thus led a shadowy existence until its rediscovery. The only other place that a similar skull fossil has been found is the USA.

Quelle: IDW Informationsdienst Wissenschaft