47-Million-Year Old Avian Fossil Highlights Relationship Between Birds and Flowers

The association between birds and flowers dates back to nearly 47 million years, say researchers of a new study, based on the oldest known fossil of a pollinating bird.

Retreived from 'Messel Pit' , a well known fossil site, the remains contain well preserved stomach contents with pollen belonging to a variety of flowering plants. Scientists of Senckenberg Research Institue, Frankfurt, claim that the fossil presents a strong relationship between birds and flowers that existed nearly 47 million years ago.

'While this process is well known and understood in the present, geological history has offered very little evidence of pollination through birds," says Dr. Gerald Mayr, head of the Ornithological Section at the Senckenberg Research Institute in Frankfurt. "There have been occasional hints, such as characteristic bill shapes, that nectarivorous birds occurred in the past, but, so far, there existed no conclusive evidence."

"This is another discovery that underlines the unique significance of the Messel fossil site," says paleobotanist Dr. Volker Wilde. "Not only does the presence of pollen offer direct evidence of the bird's feeding habits, but it shows that birds already visited flowers as long as 47 million years ago!"

There was no information available till now on when pollination through birds and vertebrates started. Till date the oldest indication of avian pollination was from early Oligocene nearly 30 million years ago.

"To date, there are no fossil plants from this geological era that offer proof of the existence of ornithophily -- i.e., the pollination of flowers through birds," says Dr. Wilde.

The fossil remains of the bird have two different types of pollen, which according to Dr. Mayr indicates that some flowers had also adapted to this mode of pollination.  He believes this information will be helpful in determining the interactions of birds and flowed in the geological time frame

The finding appears in the scientific journal Biology Letters.