A new troodontid with a skull like a pachycephalosaur, two new prehistoric birds, the bird evolutionary tree, how birds developed the ability to fly, how we know Microraptor turned out to be a decent flier, and a mathematical rule that shapes theropod faces

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Dinosaur of the day Archaeopteryx , the "ancient wing" dinosaur that was originally named for just a single feather, but is now known from over a dozen individuals.

In dinosaur news this week:

• A new troodontid theropod, Xenovenator espinosai, has an extremely thick skull—like a pachycephalosaur
• Scientists have created a complete evolutionary tree of all birds (over 9,000 species)
• There’s a new neoavian Aequornithes bird from Antarctica, Pujatopouli soberana
• There is a new euornithean bird, Kunpengornis anhuimusei, that has gut contents!
• How the structure of feathers in the Cretaceous tells us about their evolution
• The specialization of a small wrist bone, the pisiform, helps birds to fly
• A key wing muscle that helps birds fly appears to have evolved by fusing cells from multiple muscles
• How often birds, bats, and insects flap when flying may be related to a built in constraint related to the vortex their wings generate with each flap
• More Microraptor specimens (with soft tissues!) show it was a decent flier
• A set of raptor dinosaur tracks indirectly shows it used its arms to help it run faster
• Just because a theropod dinosaur had short arms and not many fingers, doesn’t mean their hands and arms were useless
• Birds have a special organ to help them balance (which doesn't seem to matter as much for flight)
• Birds have been nesting in the Arctic for at least 73 million years
• How theropod dinosaur (non-avian and bird) faces are shaped may have followed a mathematical rule
• A study of the Chicago Archaeopteryx found that could definitely fly
• Birds need a lot of calories to fly, and Archaeopteryx, the oldest known bird, has three features modern birds also have to eat efficiently

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