A new prehistoric bird was found in Germany

We all know the Archaeopteryx. But in the same time was also a other bird in the same area in Germany. This bird could better fly as the Archaeopteryx. The name is Alcmonavis poeschli.

https://www.spiegel.de/wissenschaft/natur/neue-urvogel-art-auf-der-fraenkischen-alb-identifiziert-a-1267348.html

text with bing translator:

In the Altmühltal valley near Ingolstadt
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The Archaeopteryx is considered an ancestor of birds. But the feathered dinosaur wasn't travelling alone in the air. A newly discovered primeval bird was probably able to fly even better.

For paleontologists, the region around the Altmühltal is a scientific stroke of luck. Numerous fossils have already been discovered on the Franconian Alb between Ingolstadt and Nuremberg. Famous are the limestone quarries of Solnhofen, where prey saurs as well as the primeval bird Archaeopteryx once lived. All the fossil he has found so far comes from here.

Researchers have now discovered: In the Jura, not only did he rule the airspace of the Franconian Alb alone, the fossilized wing of a second airworthy primal bird has now been found. The animal also lived in the region about 150 million years ago, but was not only a little bigger, but probably also a little more developed.

Elegant flight manoeuvres do not arrive at the Archaeopteryx. His contemporary, on the other hand, has several features that Archaeopteryx does not have. "Muscle attachment points on the wing indicate an improved flight capacity ," explained paleontologist Oliver Rauhut from the Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich. This has made it possible to adapt better to the active flutter flight.

"His adjustments show that the evolution of the flight must have progressed relatively quickly ," said Christian Foth of the Université de Fribourg. He is one of the co-authors of the study, which was published in the journal "eLife ."

The researchers have dubbed the newly discovered bird Alcmonavis poeschli. It owes its name to the old Celtic name of the Altmühl, Alcmona, and its discoverer Roland Pöschl. Pöschl is leading the excavations at the quarry on Schaudiberg near Mörnsheim.

Until now, Archaeopteryx, discovered in 1861, was considered to be the only bird in the region from the Jura. As a transitional form between reptiles and birds, it proves that today's birds are direct descendants of predatory dinosaurs.