Not all birds of this beak type eat large seeds, though. The American goldfinch, for example, loves thistle, or Nyjer. Its small beak is perfect for tiny, tough thistle seeds. But no matter the ...

Scientists at Yale have pieced together what they think is the first bird beak ever to have evolved. It belongs to Ichthyornis dispar, which lived in North America nearly 100 million years ago.

they know what the first bird beak looked like during that evolutionary journey. The beak belongs to an Ichthyornis dispar from about 85 million years ago. Bhart-Anjan Bhullar, the principal ...