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Science In Action: The Earliest Birds Probably ‘Quacked’

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The Earliest Birds Probably ‘Quacked’

13/10/2016 GMT

BBC World Service - Science In Action, The Earliest Birds Probably ‘Quacked’

Finding the oldest fossilized syrinx, a bird’s equivalent of a voice box.

Finding the oldest fossilized syrinx, a bird’s voice box. Also, drilling into the centre of the ‘Dinosaur Crater’ in Mexico, Balloon trips to space and Wooden Skyscrapers.

The oldest fossilized remains of a syrinx, a bird’s equivalent of a voice box, has been described. The remains of the extinct bird specimen (Vegavis iaai), which lived about 66-68 million years ago, were found on Antarctica - confirming that the syrinx had evolved at the time of the dinosaurs.

Drilling the ‘Dinosaur Crater’
Scientists have obtained remarkable new insights into the asteroid impact that wiped out the dinosaurs. They have been examining rock drilled from the Chicxulub Crater that the 15km-wide asteroid, dug out of what is now the Gulf of Mexico some 66 million years ago.

Stratolites
Many of us would love to go into space but, almost 60 years after the dawn of the space age, very few can afford it. But there might soon be a cheaper option. BBC Future Space Correspondent, Richard Hollingham, reports from Tucson, Arizona, where a balloon company is planning to fly tourists high into the stratosphere and also take on services provided by satellites - such as communications and weather forecasting - with 'stratolites'.

Wooden Skyscrapers
New ways to engineer and build with wood, a huge demand for housing and concerns about the high carbon cost of steel and concrete mean architects and engineers are looking to sustainable wood to build our high rise buildings.

Picture: The fossil syrinx is from an extinct species related to ducks from the late Cretaceous of Antarctica, Credit J. Clarke/UT Austin

Presenter: Marnie Chesterton
Producer: Fiona Roberts

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