Known as Vegavis iaai, the bird thrived in late-Cretaceous Antarctica, then a tropical paradise. About a million years before the asteroid that wiped out 75% of life on Earth, it went extinct.

A recently analyzed near-complete fossil skull found in Antarctica has revealed Vegavis iaai to be the oldest known modern bird, according to a study published in Nature. 66 million years ago ...

It belongs to a species that was first identified two decades ago named Vegavis iaai, which lived in the late Cretaceous Period alongside the last dinosaurs. But because only fragments of skulls ...

A recent study found a nearly complete skull in Antarctica that may belong to an ancient ancestor of ducks and geese called Vegavis iaai. This species lived around 68 million years ago ...

An artist’s interpretation of Vegavis iaai diving for fish in the shallow ocean off the coast of the Antarctic peninsula, with ammonites and plesiosaurs for company. Disclaimer: AAAS and EurekAlert!

The skull is from Vegavis iaai, an extinct duck-like bird that lived ... It can help answer a big open question in bird evolution: Did it take the demise of non-avian dinosaurs for modern birds ...

The Late Cretaceous modern (crown) bird,Vegavis iaai, pursuit diving for fish in the shallow ocean off the coast of the Antarctic peninsula, with ammonites and plesiosaurs forcompany. (Credit: Mark ...