47-million-year-old fossil of hummingbird ancestor found – and it still has traces of pollen in its stomach

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  47-million-year-old fossil of hummingbird ancestor found – and it still has traces of pollen in its stomach

First evidence that birds pollinated flowers 50m years ago has been found
Discovery made by scientists at Senckenberg Research Institute in Germany
The fossil is the world’s oldest pollinating bird that has ever been found
And the bird was found with traces of pollen still in its stomach
Find was made in the Messel Pit where poisonous gases killed animals
By JONATHAN O’CALLAGHAN
Source: www.dailymail.co.uk

The world’s oldest fossil of a pollinating bird has been unearthed.
And, remarkably, its stomach still contained traces of pollen from various plants that flowered 47 million years ago.
The find is the first evidence that such birds were around so far back into the past.

The world’s oldest fossil of a pollinating bird has been unearthed (pictured). And, remarkably, its stomach (inset) still contained traces of pollen from various plants that flowered 47 million years ago. The discovery was made at a well known fossil treasure trove called the Messel Pit, near Darmstadt in Germany
The discovery was made at a well known fossil treasure trove called Messel Pit, near Darmstadt in Germany.
It shows the relationship between birds and flowers goes back almost 50 million years.
‘While this process is well known and understood in the present, geological history has offered very little evidence of pollination through birds,’ says Ornithologist Dr Gerald Mayr, of the Senckenberg Research Institute in Germany.

‘There have been occasional hints, such as characteristic bill shapes, that pollinating birds occurred in the past but, so far, there existed no conclusive evidence.’
Fossil evidence for the existence of pollinating insects dates back 100 million years ago to the Cretaceous period.
WHAT IS A POLLINATING BIRD?
Bird pollination, or ornithophily, involves the spreading of pollen.
Pollinating birds fly from flower to flower and with their long, slender bills transfer the pollen required for the plants’ reproduction.
In the tropics and subtropics especially, birds as well as insects serve as the
most vital pollinators.
Birds involved in pollinating flowers tend to be ones with specially designed traits for the job.
This includes hummingbirds, which are not only able to ‘hover’ but also have long and slender bills to reach into flowers.
But there had been no information at what time pollination through vertebrates, and birds in particular, came into existence.
The earliest indication of an avian pollinator came from the early Oligocene, 30 million years ago.
‘But this hummingbird fossil only offers indirect evidence of the existence of birds, Dr Mayr continues.
‘Thanks to the excellent state of preservation of the Messel bird, we were able to identify two different types of pollen, which is the first conclusive proof of pollination.’
Large numbers of differently sized pollen grains were found in the stomach contents of the completely preserved prehistoric bird known as Pumiliornis tessellatus described in the Royal Society journal Biology Letters.
Just two other specimens of the small, extinct species similar to a parrot have ever been found before, but neither had any stomach contents remaining.
Paleobotanist Dr Volker Wilde says: ‘Along with the bird’s skeletal anatomy, this indicates we indeed have the fossil of a pollinating bird.’

The Messel Pit, about 22 miles (35 kilometres) southeast of Frankfurt, was a vast lake 47 million years ago that formed from a volcanic eruption. More recently it was a quarry until the late 20th century when it was declared a Unesco World Heritage site owing to the significant scientific discoveries that continue to be made there

The discovery shows the relationship between birds and flowers goes back at least almost 50 million years. Pollinating birds fly from flower to flower and with their long, slender bills transfer the pollen (pictured from stomach of fossil) required for the plants’ reproduction
The spectacular discovery also suggests another conclusion.
If a pollinating bird lived so long ago, it must be assumed some representatives of the flora at that time had already adapted to this mode of pollination.
WHAT WAS THE MESSEL PIT?
47 million years ago the Messel Pit was a lake, which had formed after a massive volcanic explosion left a deep, steep sided crater.
Now and then it would let forth a giant belch of poisonous volcanic gases that would kill off its inhabitants.
Once the corpses had drifted down to the soft sediment at the bottom of the lake, they were not picked over by scavengers.
Their corpses would be gradually devoured by bacteria.
Mineral wastes excreted by the bacteria became fossilised, leaving behind a detailed shadow in the shape of the soft parts of the animals.
‘To date, there are no fossil plants from this geological era that offer proof of the existence of ornithophily, the pollination of flowers through birds,’ adds Dr Wilde.
‘However, the characteristic traits of bird pollinated plants, such as red flowers or a lack of scent, do not fossilize.’
This lends an even greater importance to finds such as this to understand the interactions between birds and flowers through geological time.
Dr Wilde continued: ‘This is another discovery that underlines the unique significance of the Messel fossil site.
‘Not only does the presence of pollen offer direct evidence of the bird’s feeding habits, but it shows birds already visited flowers as long as 47 million years ago!’

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