< New Latin (1872) < Greek ichthy- ichthy- ( def. ) + órnis “bird”
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They suspect the jointed beak was present in even older birds, because the rest of the specimen indicates it was a relative of Ichthyornis, another ancient bird that lived about 20 million years earlier.
From Science Magazine • Nov. 30, 2022
Several skulls of its older Ichthyornis relative have been described in recent years with bones that suggested the bird’s upper palate might have been jointed, but the evidence was still fuzzy.
From Science Magazine • Nov. 30, 2022
Fort Hays State University undergraduate Kris Super found the new Ichthyornis specimen in 2014, unearthing it from the 82- to 87-million-year-old-rocks of Kansas’s Niobrara Chalk.
From National Geographic • May 2, 2018
“Now, with greater knowledge, these scientists are showing us just how bizarre the skull of Ichthyornis really was, with an odd combination of derived and primitive features, but many more primitive features than we’d expect.”
From National Geographic • May 2, 2018
Still more wonderful than Ichthyornis is the marvellous bird described by Marsh under the name of Hesperornis regalis.
From The Ancient Life History of the Earth A Comprehensive Outline of the Principles and Leading Facts of Palæontological Science by Nicholson, Henry Alleyne
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Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
