Illustration showing the fossil skeleton of Imparavis attenboroughi, alongside a reconstruction of the bird in life.
And now, one of the scientists he moved has found a unique way to pay him back.
As a tribute to Attenborough, Clark named the speciesImparavis attenboroughi, which means Attenboroughs strange bird in Latin.
Illustration showing the fossil skeleton of Imparavis attenboroughi, alongside a reconstruction of the bird in life. (Photo: © Ville Sinkkonen, via The Field Museum)
TheImparavis attenboroughilived 120 million years ago, but unlike its contemporaries, it lacked teeth.
WithImparavis, it turns out it occurred nearly 48 million years earlier.
Today, all birds lack teeth.
Photo: John Cairns viaWikimedia Commons(CC BY 4.0)
But back in the Mesozoic, toothed little mouths were the norm.
If you saw one without teeth, itd be the oddballand thats whatImparaviswas.
The fossil that kickstarted this study was found by an amateur fossil hunter in northeastern China.
Id seen crests like that in Late Cretaceous birds, but not in the Early Cretaceous like this one.
Thats when I first suspected it might be a new species.
The bird belonged to a group namedenantiornithines.
Enantiornithines are very weird.
It seems the history of birds is more complex than we knew, said Attenborough.
Other creatures named after him include a semi-slug namedAttenborougharion rubicundusand theZaglossus attenboroughi, also known as Attenboroughs long-beaked echidna.
