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The basal bird Archaeopteryx, from the Jurassic, is well known as one of the first "missing links" to be found in support of evolution in the late 19th century. Though it is not considered a direct ancestor of modern birds, it gives a fair representation of how flight evolved and how the very first bird might have looked.
A turning point came in the early twentieth century with the writings of Gerhard Heilmann of Denmark.An artist by trade, Heilmann had a scholarly interest in birds and from 1913 to 1916, expanding on earlier work by Othenio Abel, [12] published the results of his research in several parts, dealing with the anatomy, embryology, behavior, paleontology, and evolution of birds. [13]
According to some estimates, modern birds (Neornithes) evolved in the Late Cretaceous or between the Early and Late Cretaceous (100 Ma) and diversified dramatically around the time of the Cretaceous–Paleogene extinction event 66 million years ago, which killed off the pterosaurs and all non-ornithuran dinosaurs. [4] [5]
1933 – Nagamichi Kuroda publishes Birds of the Island of Java (2 Volumes, 1933–36). 1934 – Roger Tory Peterson publishes his Guide to the Birds, the first modern field guide. 1934–37 – Brian Roberts is the expedition ornithologist on John Rymill's British Graham Land Expedition (BGLE).
Birds are popular characters in children's books, which are often handsomely illustrated. Beatrix Potter's 1908 The Tale of Jemima Puddle-Duck created an enduringly popular bird heroine. [124] Other authors followed with many bird characters in books for children of different ages. [125]
William Turner's Historia Avium (History of Birds), published at Cologne in 1544, was an early ornithological work from England. He noted the commonness of kites in English cities where they snatched food out of the hands of children. He included folk beliefs such as those of anglers.
Neognathae (/ n i ˈ ɒ ɡ n ə θ iː /; from Ancient Greek νέος (néos) ' new, young ' and γνάθος (gnáthos) ' jaw ') is an infraclass of birds, called neognaths, within the class Aves of the clade Archosauria.
Vegaviidae is a proposed extinct family of anseriform birds which lived during the Late Cretaceous and possibly the Paleocene.The monophyly of the family has been questioned by subsequent studies, with the only definitive member Vegavis known from the Maastrichtian stage of Antarctica, though some fossil genera from other continents have been assigned to this clade.