Many fossil birds have simple teeth, but a fossil found in China has large, grooved teeth and is the first avian fossil to show specialized enamel.
When stomach contents cannot be recovered, palaeontologists look to the teeth for insight into diet and environment. Jingmai O'Connor at the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County in California and her colleagues describe the fossil of Sulcavis geeorum from the early Cretaceous period (145 million to 100 million years ago). The fossil had teeth 1–3 millimetres in length with longitudinal grooves that have never before been seen in a bird.
Whereas small, smooth teeth indicate a herbivorous diet, S. geeorum may have used its hard, powerful choppers to crunch creatures with tough exoskeletons, such as insects.
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Toothy bird had crunchy diet. Nature 493, 580 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1038/493580a
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/493580a
