Brazil has just identified a new species of fossilized bird from the Late Cretaceous period. Named Navaornis hestiae, it was found in 80-million-year-old rocks from the Adamantina Formation, at the entrance of Presidente Prudente, 558 kilometers from São Paulo.

The fossil consists of a nearly complete toothless skull with jaws, part of a skeleton, and a cranial cavity. It preserves three-dimensional details of the skull, placing it in an intermediate position between primitive Mesozoic birds, known as Enantiornithes (from 135 million to 66 million years ago), and modern birds, Neornithes.

The discovery is detailed in a study published on Wednesday (13th) in the journal Nature.

"It is difficult to say with certainty whether the changes over the more than 80 million years were related to ecology or behavior," says Guillermo Navalón, a researcher and one of the study's authors. The team intends to seek and study other intermediate fossil birds to help clarify how these transformations occurred.

The animal also shares characteristics that link it with the extinct bird group containing *Archaeopteryx* — the famous fossil bird found in the Solnhofen sediments in Germany — and with toothless birds from the Jurassic of China.