New scientific findings reveal birds lost their teeth some 116 million years ago and this seems due to a common bird ancestor.

Researchers from the University of California, Riverside and Montclair State University, New Jersey collected evidence by investigating 48 species of birds that represented all classifications under the bird family tree.

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Their job was to determine how birds lost their teeth and how birds evolved a horny beak.

The absence of teeth in birds is called "edentulism." Edentulism, however, isn't exclusive to birds but is present in other vertebrates such as anteaters.

Scientists are having a challenging time determining when exactly birds lost their teeth as they only have fossil fragments to study. It remains a difficult task to tell if teeth were discarded in a common ancestor of all living birds today because the fossil records are fragmentary.

According to lead author Mark Springer from the University of California, it's essential for researchers to find those "dead genes" that hold genetic information in the fossilized remains of dead organisms.

He also revealed the ancient bird that first became toothless was a species with enamel-capped teeth.

Fossil records and their molecular findings led researchers to develop a two-step mechanism in which tooth loss and beak evolution occurred in tandem.  The first stage saw tooth loss and partial beak development beginning on the anterior portion of both the upper and lower jaws.

The second stage saw a simultaneous progression of tooth loss and beak development from the anterior portion of both jaws to the back of the rostrum or beak like projection that produced a stiff snout.

Researchers participated in the mass sequencing as part of the Avian Phylogenomics Consortium that published the aviary family tree and analysis Thursday in eight main papers in the journal Science, and in more than 20 others in different scientific journals.

TagsHow Come Birds Don't Have Any Teeth?, Birds, evolution of birds, evolution of bird beaks, birds teeth beaks, edentulism