Archaeopteryx has many characters that we'd expect to see in a bird, but
there's some which we don't really want to see in a modern bird.
The last time you saw a chicken, it didn't have teeth.
The concept of killer chickens from hell is not one we'd like to really entertain
because birds have evolved beaks.
One of the first beaked birds that we find in the fossil record is that
of Confuciusornis from Liaoning province in China.
These beautiful fossils, preserved in what is a volcanic ash deposit,
lay down in the lake, some 125 million years ago.
The fossil remains are beautiful.
And they look very much like a modern bird.
What is most remarkable about these fossils, is the feathers are so
exquisitely preserved.
We have even been able to map the chemistry of pigments.
So we can for the first time understand what these creatures might have
actually looked like some 125 million years ago.