Navaornis

Navaornis had a toothless skull with large eyes, just like many birds today, but its brain still had some ancient features like a small cerebellum and a weakly expanded telencephalon.1

Its skull is the best-preserved Mesozoic bird skull ever found, preserved in three dimensions without being flattened.1

Navaornis lived around 85 to 75 million years ago, during the Late Cretaceous period.12

The fossil site where Navaornis was found is very small, only about 6 square meters, but it has yielded hundreds of enantiornithine bird bones.1

Navaornis belongs to a group called Enantiornithes, which were the most diverse birds of the Mesozoic and lived on every continent except Antarctica.12

Its inner ear (bony labyrinth) was shaped like that of many modern birds but was much larger.1