Bird that flew 52m years ago

ARCHAEOLOG I STS have discovered a 52millionyear-old fossil of the earliest known ancestor of sparrows and finches.

The bird (pictured), which has been named Eofringillirostrum boudreauxi, was found in the US in a rich seam of fossil deposits called Fossil Lake in Wyoming. It is one of the earliest examples of a perchingbird ever found. Dr Lance Grande, of The Field Museum of Natural History in Chicago, said: ‘This is just exquisite. It is a complete skeleton with the feathers still attached, which is extremely rare.’