What can prehistory tell us about the origins of modern birds? Bhart-Anjan Bhullar from Yale University talks with us about how the discovery of a 95 million year old Ichthyornis fossil in 2014 revealed some unexpected insights into the minds — and mouths — of today’s birds. His article, “Complete Ichthyornis skull illuminates mosaic assembly of the avian head” was published on May 3, 2018 in Nature with Dan Field and six other researchers.

Websites and other resources

Neurocranium of the newly discovered Ichthyornis

Press Coverage

NPR |BBC | The Guardian | Reuters | Science News | Independent

Bonus Clips

Patrons of Parsing Science gain exclusive access to bonus clips from all our episodes and can also download mp3s of every individual episode.

Support us for as little as $1 per month at Patreon. Cancel anytime.



Clips available to patrons include …

Full episode with available download

Early teachers: High school through undergraduate

Influence of Andrew Hill at Yale, pt. 1

Influence of Andrew Hill at Yale, pt. 2

Influence of Gunter Wagner on interdisciplinary research

Influence of Jacques Gauthier on lizard anatomy

Tim Rowe, Jacques Gauthier, and The Cladistic Revolution

Influence of Tim Rowe on use of CT scanning for 3D rendering

Influence of Arkhat Abzhanov on avian head research

Making inferences from living things to their ancestors

Other differences between Ichthyornis and modern birds

On avian tooth loss

Discovery of new Ichthyornis specimen

Location of the bony cage in Ichthyornis skull

On the future of imaging technologies

Making inferences from soft tissue

Vertebrates evolved ability to fly three times

Lack of transitional fossils among pterosaurs and bats

The fragility and rarity of fossilized bones

Transporting specimens by car and air

Influence of Kevin Padian

Transformation of Ichthyornis’ beak, jaw, and teeth

The Bone Wars and influence of O.C. Marsh

Notable Yale paleontology alums