EOALULAVIS

'''Eoalulavis''' was an enantiornithine bird. It lived during the Early Cretaceous, about 115 mya ^[1] and is known from fossils found at Las Hoyas, Spain ^[2]. At the time of its discovery, it was the oldest known bird to possess an alula, a batch of feathers on the thumb that can be separately moved to improve stability at low flight speeds. This feature evolved either independently in Enantiornithes and the ancestors of mordern birds, or it is very ancient and dates back to soon after ''Archaeopteryx''. The former is considered more likely, as an alula is not known from the most primitive "dino-birds".

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References

References

1. Evolution’s fast track toward slow flight, , R., Monastersky, Science News,
2. An Early Cretaceous bird from Spain and its implications for the evolution of avian flight, , J. L., Sanz, Nature,