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What's up with (fossil) owls?

Added 2020-07-28 23:59:26 +0000 UTC

Paleontologists have just described a new 55 million-year-old fossil owl from Wyoming. It's the most complete early owl ever discovered (it's really only missing its skull) and was about the size of a living Snowy Owl.

They named it Primoptynx poliotauros. The genus name comes from the words for "first" in Latin and "owl" in Greek, and the species name means "gray bull" in Greek (referring to the geological stage from which the fossil comes). Now, I know we joke on Eons about how scientists are sometimes bad at naming things, but this time...well, it seems like they got it pretty spot-on! At least until someone finds an older fossil owl.

One of the most interesting things about this new owl is that it looks like it killed its prey with the enlarged talons found on two of its toes, the way living diurnal raptors do. Modern owls kill their prey with their beaks, so it's possible that Primoptynx was taking down different prey than living owls do.

The researchers also suggest that these odd owls might've been outcompeted to extinction by the radiation of diurnal raptors that took place in the late Eocene and early Oligocene Epochs.

For more, check out: https://phys.org/news/2020-07-scientists-fossil-early-stages-owl.html

And a special shout-out to our patron Charley, aka "Crazy Owl Lady," for asking us, "what's up with owls?"