Question

Brazil’s oldest bird fossil



The animal had feathers, the size and the delicacy

of a hummingbird, but with some crucial differences: a

beak full of teeth and a pair of huge tail feathers, for

example. It is Brazil’s oldest bird, whose fossil remains

5 date back to 115 million years ago, and was discovered

in the interior of the State of Ceará.

There were already indications that birds, or maybe

feathered dinosaurs, had lived in the area currently known

as Chapada do Araripe because isolated feathers had

10 been found before in the rocks of the region. The new

fossil, however, should bring much more accurate data

on the evolution of birds, as the entire animal is preserved

with articulated skeleton, soft tissues (like tendons),

feathers and pigments.

15 The fossil discovery is described in an article in the

scientific journal “Nature Communications”, written by a

group of Brazilian and Argentine paleontologists led by

Ismar Carvalho, from the Federal University of Rio de

Janeiro, and Fernando Novas, from the Argentine Museum

20 of Natural history.

Carvalho explains that, for now, the team chose

not to give a formal scientific name to the fossil. For the

time being, it is certain the animal belongs to the group

Enantiornithes, primitive birds characterized, in most

25 cases, by the presence of teeth, which show that they

are “daughters” of carnivorous dinosaurs. Enantiornithes

have no living descendants today – modern birds descend

from another group: the Euornithes.

Brazil’s northeastern plateau is rich in spectacularly

30 preserved fossils, in particular those of pterosaurs (flying

reptiles), but this is the first bird found there and the

most complete of all Gondwana supercontinent, which

incorporated South America, India, Africa and Antarctica

in the era of the dinosaurs.

BRAZIL’S oldest bird fossil. Disponível em: . Acesso em: 8 maio 2016. Translated by Juliana Calderari.

(UNIT – SE) Fill in the parentheses with T (True) or F (False).

About the bird fossil discovered in Ceará, it’s correct to say:

( ) It was a very small bird.

( ) Its tail feathers were big.

( ) It’s over a hundred million years old.

( ) Its beak was just like the one of now-existing humming birds.



The correct sequence, from top to bottom, is

A
T T T T


B
F T T F


C
F F F T


D
T F F T


E
T T T F

Answer 1

Resposta:

Letra E

TTTF

Explicação:

it was a very small bird . Sim correto, no começo texto diz que o pássaro tem delicadeza e tamanho de um beija-flor."The animal had feathers, the size and the delicacy  of a hummingbird".

its tail feathers were big. Sim correto. "..a pair of huge tail feathers.." um par de enormes caudas de penas.

it´s over a hundred million years old. Claro, com certeza tem mais de 1 milhão de anos. "back to 115 million years ago,".

its beak was just like the one of now-existing humming birds. Falsa, o texto diz o contrário ao afirmar que a diferença dessa ave pro beija-flor é que o bico(beak) é cheio de dentes. Está no começo do texto.

"but with some crucial differences: a  beak full of teeth"