The nearly complete skull of Vegavis iaai, a duck-sized bird that lived 69 million years ago, reveals that modern birds — those with toothless beaks and specialized brains — were already ...

In 1992, the first Vegavis iaai fossil was discovered on Vega ... but it has not positively identified the species as an ancestor of ducks and geese. While analysis of V. iaai is ongoing ...

With its glaciers and sub-zero temperatures, Antarctica hardly seems like a place of refuge. However, the now icy continent might have been just that for the early ancestors of today’s living ...

"Few birds are as likely to start as many arguments among paleontologists as 'vegavis,'" said professor Christopher Torres.

The skull is from Vegavis iaai, an extinct duck-like bird that lived during the Late Cretaceous, just before non-avian dinosaurs went extinct. It’s one of very few 3D bird skulls known to ...

A newly studied Vegavis iaai skull from Antarctica confirms that modern bird lineages, like ducks and geese, were evolving ...

For decades, scientists have wondered at the taxonomy of Vegavis iaai— an ancient avian specimen that lived in what is now Antarctica during the late Cretaceous period.

Its features don't slot neatly into any modern bird family. Vegavis iaai had the flat feet of ducks but a sharp, narrow beak like a loon. Thick muscles supported its jaw against water pressure ...

An Antarctic discovery might offer new insights into the origins of modern birds. The skull, from an ancient relative of ducks and geese known as Vegavis iaai, suggests that the key characteristics of ...

While Vegavis has features that clearly mark it as being in the same group of waterfowl as ducks and geese, it would have looked very different, says O’Connor. The bird’s beak shape ...

The new skull helps settle that debate, according to researchers. Its structure, including the shape of the brain and beak, suggests Vegavis belonged to the group that includes modern ducks and geese.