EvolutionBlog

MSNBC is reporting the discovery of yet another transitional form, this time linking ancient and modern birds:

Dozens of fossils of an ancient loonlike creature that some say is the missing link in bird evolution have been discovered in northwest China.

The remains of 40 of the nearly modern amphibious birds, so well-preserved that some even have their feathers, were found in Gansu province, researchers report in Friday's issue of the journal Science. Previously only a single leg of the creature, known as Gansus yumenensis, had been found.

“Gansus is a missing link in bird evolution,” said Matt Lamanna of the Carnegie Museum of Natural History in Pittsburgh.

“Most of the ancestors of birds from the age of dinosaurs are members of groups that died out and left no modern descendants. But Gansus led to modern birds, so it's a link between primitive birds and those we see today,” Lamanna, a co-leader of the research team, said in a telephone interview.

It was about the size of a modern pigeon, but similar to loons or diving ducks, he explained, and one of the fossils even has skin preserved between the toes, showing that it had webbed feet.

Of course, there is a fair amount of imprecision here, as typically happens in media accounts of scientific discoveries. There is no such thing as “the” missing link. In fact, scientists tend to avoid the term “missing link” altogether. What we can say is that these fossils have features that are transitional between those of ancient birds and those of modern birds. The idea that modern birds are the product of evolution becomes far more likely given the discovery of these fossils.

At any rate, yet another victory for evolution.