Field of Science

Rare as hen's teeth?

Having had a budgee take a chunk out of my finger once, the idea of birds with nice sharp teeth is a bit frightening, but teeth they had as this fossil find demonstrates. This article also mentions a rather nifty scientific discovery: birds still have the genes for teeth, but their development is turned off, that is something in the genetic instructions keeps them from developing.  This is a common enough evolutionary change - the loss of some feature.  So stay away from those Cretaceous canaries; they bite!

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