Smallest bird fossil found in amber nearly 100m years old

Paleontologists announced Friday the discovery of the smallest bird specimen in a Cretaceous amber.

The bird is about 5 centimeters in length, the same size as the smallest living bird in the world, the bee hummingbird. Xing Lida, an associate professor at China University of Geosciences (Beijing), carried out the research together with scholars from Canada and the United States.

This newly discovered specimen comes from the amber area of the Okanagan Valley in Kachin, north of Myanmar. Due to miners’ negligence or natural weathering, this specimen eroded along the coronal plane, lost part of its flesh and became thinner. Therefore, it was nicknamed “‘Pancake Bird”.