Early Cretaceous Feathers from Victoria

Abstract

Unusually well preserved fossil feathers from Lower Cretaceous (Vulanginian-Aptian) claystones at Koonwarra, Victoria, are the oldest (c. 110–125 million years) bird remains yet found in the southern hemisphere. They are among the oldest bird remains known in the world, being antedated only by the toothed Archaeopteryx from the late Jurassic of Bavaria, and being more or less the same age as Gullornis from the Lower Cretaceous of France. The Victorian fossil feathers are evidence for essentially worldwide distribution of birds soon after the beginning of the Cretaceous, if not before. The feathers could conceivably have come from toothed birds.