Wyoming, United States

It's a done fact, birds are officially dinosaurs. From pigeons in the park to penguins in the Antarctic, all birds are living breathing dinosaurs, believe scientists, thanks to the discovery of a fossil of a dinosaur called Archaeopteryx.

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The Archaeopteryx

As per a Reuters report, research shows that the Archaeopteryx had feathers, hollow bones, clawed wings, fifty teeth, and a long bony tail. This makes it the earliest known dinosaur that also qualifies as a bird.

The Archaeopteryx, as per Jingmai O'Connor, PhD, the Field Museum's associate curator of fossil reptiles, is the "most important fossil of all time".

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"It's the first puzzle piece for understanding the evolution of all the birds we see around us," said O'Connor.

Experts believe that birds are the only group of dinosaurs to survive the asteroid that wiped off the mighty beings from Earth some 66 million years ago.

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As of now, only about a dozen or so archaeopteryx specimens have been found globally. They come from a fossil deposit in southern Germany called the Solnhofen Limestone.

Most of them are in Europe, one will soon be displayed in the Field Museum in Chicago, Illinois. Public can see it starting May 7 (Tuesday).

Another one is in the United States' Thermopolis, Wyoming. 

"We've learned a lot of new basic information about what the skeleton looked like, we're transforming how we interpret the skull and other parts of the body," said O'Connor.

Also read | An asteroid hit ended dinosaurs' reign. But did birds flourish because of it?

"I really hope that this inspires kids out there who sometimes may think like, scientists have been working for centuries. We know everything. Absolutely not. There's still so much to discover."

As per Reuters, the fossil was unearthed by quarry workers in 1990 and has been in the hands of private collectors ever since.

After a coalition of supporters helped the Field Museum procure the fossil; it arrived at the museum in August 2022.

(With inputs from agencies)