Growing up, Alex Clark knew he wanted to work in natural science when he saw Sir David Attenborough’s BBC documentary series “The Trials of Life.”
“I don’t know how many people on the planet haven’t seen at least one nature documentary, and he’s [likely] the narration of it,” said Clark, a 32-year-old researcher at the Field Museum who is pursuing a doctorate in evolutionary biology at the University of Chicago.
“In some form, [Attenborough has] either shaped people’s perspective on the natural world, or he’s been this huge voice for waking up to the issues that are happening globally with the planet.”
Now, Clark is paying homage by naming a fossil after the notable natural historian.
In a paper published Monday in the Cretaceous Research journal, Clark and other scientists describe Attenborough’s strange bird,” or “Imparavis attenboroughi,” as a new species that was the first of its kind to be toothless. Clark’s co-authors include his adviser, Jingmai O’Connor, the Field Museum’s associate curator of fossil reptiles.
The fossil of the bird, which lived 120 million years ago, was found in northeastern China and donated to the Shandong Tianyu Museum of Nature. Bearing a resemblance to a robin, Imparavis attenboroughi belongs to a group of birds called the enantiornithines.
The discovery of the species proves that toothlessness occurred 48 million to 50 million years earlier than scientists previously thought, said Clark, who lives in Hyde Park.
“There’s not a single bird alive that has teeth,” he added. “But if you go back 120 million years, pretty much anywhere in the world, almost everything had teeth. So if you were out on a walk, you would see something that looks like a gull or robin, but then it would open its mouth, and there would be teeth everywhere.
“It’s kind of freaky if you think about it. Like little, toothed goblins running around. And they were flying.”
The fossil caught O’Connor’s eye during one of her visits to the Shandong Tianyu Museum of Nature. She said she asked Clark to study the specimen and was impressed with how much information he discovered: He determined the bird had unusual wing bones that allowed it to flap its wings very quickly and launch away immediately when facing a predator.
“I’m just really excited about Alex’s potential as a Ph.D. student,” said O’Connor, 40, of the South Loop. She earned her doctorate in earth sciences from University of Southern California.
“We’re just getting started in our collaborative relationship, and I’m very excited to see what we’re going to do together,” she said. “We’re both just obsessed with these strange birds, so it’s going to be fun.”
So what does Attenborough think about the fossil’s name?
“It is a great honour to have one’s name attached to a fossil, particularly one as spectacular and important as this,” the British broadcaster said in a news release. “It seems the history of birds is more complex than we knew.”
The acknowledgment was a highlight of the experience for Clark.
“My head imploded, and I admittedly texted some of my colleagues: ‘Hey, guys, guess who got a comment from David Attenborough?’” Clark said. “It’s pretty surreal.”
