The discovery confirms "that big birds were living alongside Cretaceous non-avian dinosaurs," lead author Darren Naish said.

"Clearly, highly hypnotizable brains are different," said Naish, "but what you do once you are hypnotized is largely down to expectation."

As Naish points out, though, the new findings about Samrukia demonstrate that modern birds "weren't as distinct from extinct groups of Mesozoic birds as people used to think."