Arctic bird nesting traces back to the Cretaceous

Polar ecosystems are structured and enriched by birds, which nest there seasonally and serve as keystone ecosystem members. Despite the ecological importance of polar birds, the origins of high-latitude nesting strategies remain obscured by a sparse fossil record. We report an extreme-latitude Arctic avialan assemblage from the Prince Creek Formation of Alaska-the northernmost Late Cretaceous terrestrial ecosystem. Numerous three-dimensionally preserved fossils constitute one of the most taxonomically rich Late Cretaceous avialan assemblages, including members of Hesperornithes, Ichthyornithes, and near-crown or crown birds (Neornithes), recording a previously undocumented interval in avialan evolution. Abundant perinatal fossils represent the oldest evidence of birds nesting at polar latitudes, which demonstrates that birds began using seasonal polar environments for breeding during the Cretaceous, long before their modern descendants.

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Publication Details

Journal
Science
Published
2025-05-29
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1126/science.adt5189
Citations
6
Primary Topic
Paleontology and Evolutionary Biology
Type
article
Field-Weighted Citation Impact
25.97
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article

Arctic bird nesting traces back to the Cretaceous

Caleb M. Brown, Donald B. Brinkman, Jacob D. Gardner, Daniel T. Ksepka et al.
6 citations
Science
Paleontology and Evolutionary Biology
25.97
article

Arctic bird nesting traces back to the Cretaceous

Caleb M. Brown, Donald B. Brinkman, Jacob D. Gardner, Daniel T. Ksepka, Jaelyn J. Eberle, Patrick S. Druckenmiller, Chris L. Organ, Lauren N. Wilson, John P. Wilson, Gregory M. Erickson
article en
6 citations

Abstract

Polar ecosystems are structured and enriched by birds, which nest there seasonally and serve as keystone ecosystem members. Despite the ecological importance of polar birds, the origins of high-latitude nesting strategies remain obscured by a sparse fossil record. We report an extreme-latitude Arctic avialan assemblage from the Prince Creek Formation of Alaska-the northernmost Late Cretaceous terrestrial ecosystem. Numerous three-dimensionally preserved fossils constitute one of the most taxonomically rich Late Cretaceous avialan assemblages, including members of Hesperornithes, Ichthyornithes, and near-crown or crown birds (Neornithes), recording a previously undocumented interval in avialan evolution. Abundant perinatal fossils represent the oldest evidence of birds nesting at polar latitudes, which demonstrates that birds began using seasonal polar environments for breeding during the Cretaceous, long before their modern descendants.

ScienceVol. 388(6750)
Florida State University (US), University of Alaska Fairbanks (US), University of Alberta (CA), University of Colorado Boulder (US), Princeton University (US), Montana State University (US), Royal Tyrrell Museum (CA), Museum of Boulder (US), Bruce Museum (US), University of Manitoba (CA), University of Reading (GB)
Life below water, Life in Land
Openalex Percentile: Top 0%
Paleontology and Evolutionary Biology
25.97
DOISourceOpenAlex
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