Finest fossil owl found
©123rf.com/Evelyn Harrison
While digging in the Bridger Formation of southwestern Wyoming, researchers discovered an incredibly well-preserved fossil bird of prey, claimed to be 48 million years old. It has recently been identified as an owl, just larger than a modern barn owl. 45 percent of the skeleton is intact, including, wings, legs, feet and skull. Project co-researcher Elizabeth Freedman Fowler stated,
“There is no fossil owl with a skull like this, bird skulls are incredibly thin and fragile, so to have one preserved still in three dimensions, even if slightly crushed, it’s amazing. It even has the hyoids at the bottom, the bones that attach to the tongue muscles.”
This extraordinary find does not point to rock that is millions of years old, but to the owl’s rapid burial during Noah’s Flood around 4,500 years ago.
- Greggel, L., 48-Million-Year-Old Fossil Owl Is Almost Perfectly Preserved, livescience.com, 23 October 2018.
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