This is Scientific American's 60-second Science, I'm Adam Levy.Who's your favorite superhero? Captain Marvel? Superman?Well, in a minute, you might just change your answer to the Wonderchicken.("Yes, the Wonderchicken: Strange visitor from this planet.A 67-million-year-old fossil that's helping researchers piece together the bird family tree.")An amateur fossil hunter dug up this specimen 20 years ago in Belgium.But it wasn't much to look at―just some damaged broken rocks with a few limb bones poking out―that is, until researchers recently decided to peer inside."We took these not very promising looking rocks and CT scanned them.And when we did that, we were amazed to discover that inside the rock was a beautiful, nearly complete, three-dimensionally preserved bird skull."Paleobiologist Daniel Field of the University of Cambridge in the U.K.The result was so striking that coming up with a nickname for this newly discovered species was easy."The combination of the shock and the chickeny nature of the fossil resulted in the name Wonderchicken."And the specimen isn't just special because of the incredibly preserved skull.The Wonderchicken is actually a record breaker."So this is actually the oldest fossil ever found that's clearly a representative of the group of modern birds."
