Rare ancient bird had sharp, serrated teeth

Scientists say they’ve uncovered a bird from the Early Cretaceous period with sharp teeth and serrated edges, which likely enabled it to eat hard-shelled insects and snails.

Researchers analyzed the fossil of the Sulcavis geeorum bird uncovered in Liaoning Province, China, and published their findings in Vertebrate Paleontology. The unusual fossil still had remnants of its food in its stomach.

That area in China is known to have been a primeval forest that was home to dinosaurs as well as primitive lizards and birds.

Existing some 121 to 125 million years ago, the Sulcavis is believed to have had a durophagus diet, which means its teeth were capable of chomping into prey that had exoskeletons. Sulcavis is the first fossil bird discovered to have ornamented tooth enamel.

The species is unique that it has a diversity of dental patterns, with pointed, sharp crowns that have grooves on the inside surface. No previous bird species have those kinds of serrated edges or striations.

Jingmai O’Connor, lead author of the study, said the bird appears to have adapted to eating different, harder-to-chew animals but somehow died off — a mystery scientists are still scratching their heads over.

"Maybe differences in diet played a part," O'Connor said.

Study co-author Luis Chiappe, from the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles, said their finding "highlights again how uneven the diversity of birds was during the Cretaceous [period]."

The Sulcavis geeorum, about the size of a robin, belonged to a class of extinct birds with teeth, Enantiornithines. Chiappe says modern-day fliers still possess the genes for teeth but those genes have been turned off.

Scientists have surmised the teeth are too heavy and that birds’ bodies have gotten lighter and therefore could not support such massive chompers.