Daffy Duck Found in Dino Park

A fossil duck from the Cretaceous has been discovered, indicating that the branch of birds including waterfowl already coexisted with the dinosaurs.  A press release from NC State explains the significance of the paper published in Nature¹ this week.  Dr. Julia Clarke and colleagues say this means that “at least duck, chicken and ratite bird relatives were coextant with non-avian dinosaurs.”

¹Clarke et al., “Definitive fossil evidence for the extant avian radiation in the Cretaceous,” Nature 433, 305 – 308 (20 January 2005); doi:10.1038/nature03150.

Wow, those early birds must have evolved from dinosaurs pretty fast.  This seems to require a dramatically accelerated rate of lucky mutations per year.  Beware, Charlie: gambling is addictive.