The extremely well-preserved skeleton of northwest China reveals the first evidence of a prehistoric owl active during the day.
Almost complete 6-million-year-old owl fossil from Gansu. Photo: IVPP
In a report in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America on March 28, a research team from the Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleontology (IVPP) of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, led by Dr. Li Zhiheng and Thomas Stidham, named the new species Miosurnia diurna. Its fossils are found in rocks deposited at an altitude of more than 2,100 m in the Linxia Basin in Gansu Province, on the edge of the Tibetan Plateau.
Though dating back up to 6 million years, the creature’s fragile skeleton is surprisingly well-preserved. It was nearly complete from head to tail, including parts rarely preserved in bird fossils such as the wing tendons, leg muscles, bones of the tongue apparatus and even remnants of the last meal.
“The excellently preserved eye bones in the skull help us to know that Miosurnia diurna is an owl that is active during the day, rather than nocturnal,” said Zhiheng.
Simulates a Miosurnia diurna owl hunting during the day. Photo: IVPP
Nocturnal animals require large eyes and large pupils to see in low light, while diurnal species have smaller eyes and pupils.
The team reconstructed the shape and size of the pupil’s pupil and circle around the iris of the fossil, and then compared it with the eyes of 55 reptile species and more than 360 bird species, including many owls. concluded that Miosurnia diurna was active during the day, most closely related to its modern relative, the northern kite owl.
Dr Stidham added that Miosurnia diurnia was the first evidence of an evolutionary process spanning millions of years in which a species of owl “rejected the night for pleasure in the sun”.
Doan Duong (According to CNS)
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