Punk Amazon bird is an ancient European emigrant

摘要

The Amazon's mystery bird hails from Europe. Today, hoatzins live only in South America, but the oldest known fossil of these odd birds reveals they once roamed France. The hoatzin (pronounced "wot-seen") is unique in the bird kingdom. Young hoatzins (Opisthocomus hoazin) have claws on their wings, like their dinosaur ancestors, which they use to climb trees. They also have punk-style feathers on their heads and ferment their food in a foregut like that of cows, giving them a cow-like stink. The heavy foregut means hoatzins can only fly a few hundred metres.