55-million-year-old fossil bird shows how trogons evolved their unusual feet

PC: Journal of Systematic Palaeontology A fossil bird from Denmark is helping researchers understand how the unusual feet of modern trogons evolved. The fossil belongs to a species called Daniatrogon kochi, which lived about 55 million years ago during the Early Eocene. Researchers found the fossil in 1989 on the Danish island of Mors in the Fur Formation. According to the study published in the Journal of Systematic Palaeontology titled ‘Evolution of a morphological novelty: exceptional skeleton of an early Eocene trogon (Aves: Trogoniformes) elucidates the origin of a unique foot morphology’, the specimen is one of the oldest known trogoniforms and preserves a foot that differs from other known trogoniforms.What does the 55-million-year-old fossil reveal about trogon feetThe nearly complete skeleton of Daniatrogon kochi was found on a beach on the Danish island of Mors in 1989 by fossil collector Karsten Koch, whose name is also reflected in the species name. The fossil comes from the Early Eocene Fur Formation and is exceptionally well preserved. The presence of medullary bone shows that the specimen was a breeding female.A phylogenetic analysis places Daniatrogon kochi as the e...