Green river bird fossils found according to ScienceDaily 5 July 2016 and Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History, 30 June 2016. Sterling Nesbitt and Julia Clarke of Virginia Tech have studied five fossils of an extinct bird found in the Green River Formation in Wyoming. The bird was about the size of a chicken, and the researchers suggest it was a mainly ground dwelling poor flyer. They have named the bird Calciavis grandei and claim it is an extinct relative of flightless birds such as ostriches, kiwis and tinamous.
One of the fossils is an almost complete articulated skeleton with preserved feathers and scales. Another is an almost complete, but disarticulated specimen. There are also three other less complete specimens. According to Nesbitt, fossil birds are rare because their bones are fragile and easily crushed, but he commented: “These are spectacularly preserved fossils, one is a nearly complete skeleton covered with feather remains, the others are nearly as complete and some show soft tissue remains”. According to ScienceDaily, “One of the fossilized birds in this rare case apparently was covered in mud soon after death”.
The Green River Formation is best known for the many well preserved fish fossils, but also contains other fossilised creatures including birds, plants, crocodilians, turtles, bats, and mammals.
Editorial Comment: It is good to see these scientists catching up to what we have been saying for many years. The Green River formation is famous for being made up of numerous fine layers, some only millimetres thick. These are claimed to represent individually laid down layers of sediment added on a yearly cycle. The well preserved fossils described above prove this cannot be right. A chicken sized bird is not going to remain intact while it is slowly and gradually buried by fine layers of sediment. These fossilised birds had to be buried rapidly in a flood of mud. The same applies to the other fossils, including the famous fish, which are also exquisitely preserved. (Ref. fossilisation, sedimentation)
Evidence News vol. 16 No. 13
13 July 2016
Creation Research Australia