Pernel Media to produce documentary about Wonderchicken Fossil discovery

Pernel Media has secured exclusive access to the Cambridge University team whose fossil discovery shook up the world of palaeontology. In 2020, Professor Daniel Fields and his team of fossil experts discovered the oldest fossil of a modern bird yet found, dating from the age of dinosaurs. Hailed as the ‘missing link’ between dinosaurs and modern birds, the spectacular fossil, affectionately nicknamed the ‘Wonderchicken’, includes a nearly complete skull and dates from less than one million years before the asteroid impact which eliminated all large dinosaurs.

Pernel Media has secured access to Professor Daniel Fields and his team’s groundbreaking discovery and more recent studies to tell the epic story of the evolution of birds in a two-hour premium documentary film "Rise of the Birds".

With ambitious 3D reconstructions that give life to extinct creatures, the documentary will chart the incredible evolution of birds whilst taking the viewer on a journey through different geological eras, on the ground, in the water, and in the air.

Executive producer is Céline Payot Lehmann for Pernel Media: “The Wonderchicken is the missing link between a T Rex and a pigeon,” says Céline Payot Lehmann. “It’s a game changing discovery that will allow us to explain how birds survived the asteroid 66 million years ago, and how they evolved to become this incredibly diverse species with over 12,000 types of different shapes, size and colour.”

“The moment I first saw what was beneath the rock was the most exciting moment of my scientific career”, said Professor Daniel Fields. "This incredible skull stared straight out at us, and we could not believe our eyes. It’s the oldest evidence of modern birds that we have so far”.