Earliest known seed-eating perching bird discovered in Fossil Lake, Wyoming
(PHYSorg.com Archaeology & Fossils)

Most of the birds you`ve ever seen-sparrows, finches, robins, crows-have one crucial thing in common: they`re all what scientists refer to as perching birds, or `passerines.` The passerines make up about 6,500 of the 10,000 bird species alive today. But while they`re everywhere now, they were once rare, and scientists are still learning about their origins. In a new paper in Current Biology, researchers have announced the discovery of one of the earliest known passerine birds, from 52 million years ago.