Jumbled bones show birds on the menu
By Sid Perkins
An unusual fossil found in Spain is providing the oldest evidence of birds serving as food.
The mass of bones, jumbled together in an area less than 4 square inches, turned up in a layer of fossil-riddled sediments where the other specimens remain complete, intact, and isolated from one another. Analysis shows that the mixed bones came from four baby or juvenile birds of three different species, says José L. Sanz, a paleontologist at the Universidad Autónoma de Madrid.