Old hummingbird blows scientist’s mind, as Gerald Mayr of the Forschungsinstitut Senckenberg, Frankfurt has found fossilised specimens of hummingbirds in rocks from southern Germany dated as 30 million years old, as reported by ScienceNOW, Science vol 304, p861, and BBC News, 6 May 2004. This makes them the oldest fossil hummingbirds to be found. Wild hummingbirds do not live anywhere in Europe, so hummingbirds were thought to have evolved in the Americas. Gerald Mayr commented: “Maybe hummingbirds used to have a much wider distribution, but for some reason, they went extinct in the Old World.” He claims it could explain why some European flowers appear to be adapted for hovering birds. The fossil birds have all the specialised features seen in living hummingbirds, such as wing joints that enable hovering and backward flying, and beaks designed for feeding on nectar. Margaret Rubega of the University of Connecticut commented: “The amazing thing about this fossil is that it is essentially a modern hummingbird. My mind is a little blown.”
Editorial Comment: There are no minds blown at Creation Research because this fossil fits well into the Biblical history of the world, i.e. in the beginning God made the different kinds of birds to separately reproduce after their kind. Therefore, it is no surprise that the oldest known fossil hummingbird is the same as a modern hummingbird. In the good world God created, hummingbirds would have been more widespread than today because the there was a world-wide warm moist climate covered with lush vegetation. After Noah’s flood hummingbirds would have migrated away from the ark across Europe to the Americas. As the climate became more erratic they died out in Europe when it got too cold for many of their food plants to flourish, but survived in the warmer parts of North and South America. (Ref. hummingbird, fossil, bird)