Bulgaria discovery reveals first European fossil hornbill

Paleontologists in Bulgaria have discovered the first known European fossils of a hornbill, a species named Euroceros bulgaricus. Found near Hadzhidimovo in the Blagoevgrad region, these remains date back approximately 7 million years to the late Miocene epoch.

The discovery, led by Professor Zlatodar Boev and published in the journal Geologica Balcanica, marks the first recorded presence of the Bucerotidae family in Europe. This finding suggests that during the Neogene period, hornbills had a much broader distribution across Africa, Europe, and Asia than they do today, when they are primarily found in Sub-Saharan Africa and the Indo-Malayan zoogeographical region.

The research, compiled by the National Museum of Natural History at the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences, synthesizes three decades of paleontological studies across 17 sites. In addition to the hornbill, the findings include some of the oldest known fossilized serpent eagles, Neogene pheasants, and the first evidence of ostriches, peacocks, swans, falcons, and gulls in Bulgaria. These fossils indicate that the region once hosted diverse habitats ranging from open grasslands to forested environments.