News Paleontology

A mouth built for efficiency may have helped the earliest bird fly

The 150-million-year-old Archaeopteryx had mouth features similar to those of birds today

An illustration shows a bird with a long, narrow beak, bright blue eye ring and open mouth against a cloudy coastal background.

Fleshy “teeth” on the roof of Archaeopteryx’s mouth, a sensory organ at the end of the beak and a highly mobile tongue (all illustrated) may have helped the ancient bird get the energy it needed to fly.

Ville Sinkkonen

By Jay Bennett

About 150 million years ago, in a coastal lagoon in what is now southern Germany, the oldest known bird gobbled up food with a beak built for efficient eating.