The “one-of-a-kind” fossil of Navaornis hestiae helps fill a giant gap in scientists’ understanding of how bird brains evolved.

A rare 80-million-year-old fossil bird skull is helping scientists decode how modern bird intelligence evolved.

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

Navaornis is likened to a sort of Rosetta Stone for decyphering the evolution of bird brains.

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

The brains of today's birds facilitate a level of cognitive prowess and behavioral complexity rivaled only by mammals. But how the avian brain evolved over many millions of years from an ancestral dinosaurian form has long puzzled scientists.

A unique fossil discovery in Brazil provides new insights into bird brain evolution, while a study highlights drastic population declines in African elephants over the past 50 years. The skull of a bird species,