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Confuciusornis: Earliest Known Beaked Bird

© Beverly Eschberger

In my last article, I mentioned that fossils of Confuciusornis, the earliest known bird to have a modern, toothless beak (in contrast with Archaeopteryx, which had teeth), had been smuggled out of China, and offered for sale. During my research for this article, I found several specimens of Confuciusornis offered for sale for several thousand dollars on the internet. Whether these fossils were removed legally or not, I cannot say. I am, however, disappointed that, because of the large amounts of money these specimens are being offered for, these fossils will most likely be bought by private collectors, rather than going to a museum or university where they can be studied by paleontologists.

You might ask, "Why don't museums buy the fossils, rather than letting them go to private collectors?" The answer is that most museums have very limited budgets, and simply cannot afford to pay thousands of dollars per fossil, they must rely on donations from people who want their fossils to be studied and appreciated by many people. The cost of one Confuciusornis fossil would make a serious dent in the budget of even the largest and best funded Natural History Museum.

Until recently, it was believed that Archaeopteryx was the only bird to live during the Jurassic Period (195 to 140 million years ago). Then a Chinese farmer sold some fossils he found on his land to a fossil dealer, who sold them to a nearby museum. Paleontologists there knew they had something special: the earliest known bird with a beak.

Although Archaeopteryx is still the earliest known bird, Confuciusornis sanctus ("sacred bird of Confucius"), is the earliest known bird to have a toothless beak made of the same horny material as our modern birds. Confuciusornis is only about 10 to 15 million years younger than Archaeopteryx, but it has many characteristics that are shared with our modern birds.

Confuciusornis has feathers on its body, while Archaeopteryx specimens only have feathers preserved on their wings. (This may just indicate how the fossils were preserved, and it is possible that Archaeopteryx had body feathers as well.) Confuciusornis also has a keeled sternum. This is the large breast bone that you see in a chicken or turkey, and is the point of attachment for the wing muscles. Archaeopteryx specimens do not have a keel (although I have heard that a recently discovered specimen may have one, which would change how we think about Archaeopteryx), indicating that it was probably not a stong flyer. The presence of a keel in Confuciusornis may indicate that it was a stronger flyer than Archaeopteryx.