There is a dearth of well-preserved fossils from the early stages of avian evolution. The fragility of bird bones makes their fossils uncommon. This skull was three-dimensionally preserved, rather than crushed flat like many fossils. The fossil, which included 80% of the bird's skeleton, indicated it was a competent flier.

Birds descended from the dinosaurs, but researchers have known relatively little about how the bird's brain took shape over millions of years. A new fossil sheds light on that mystery.

Interestingly, this fossil fills a 70-million-year-long gap in our knowledge between the early bird-like dinosaurs (Archaeopteryx) and modern birds.

Palaeontologists have pieced together the brain structure of a bird that lived 80 million years ago named Navaornis hestiae, thanks to a remarkably well-preserved fossil