Get This: Ancient Ostrich Relatives Used to Strut Across the American West

July 7, 2016

If you visited Wyoming around 50 million years ago, you might see a peculiar little bird racing through the hot, dense forests of the Eocene. About the size of a chicken, the creature would look something like a modern-day tinamou. In fact, that connection is pretty close to the mark. In a recent paper by Jackson School of Geosciences paleontologists, the prehistoric bird is revealed to be related to the flightless family that now holds ostriches, emus, and their kin.

Audobon, July 7, 2016

Julia Clarke, Professor, Department of Geological Sciences, Jackson School of Geosciences.

Sterling Nesbitt, former postdoctoral researcher, Jackson School of Geosciences.