You probably don’t think twice when you queue up at the grocery store or join a conga line at a wedding. But this type of single-file organization is a sophisticated form of collective social behavior. And as suggested by the children’s song “The Ants Go Marching One-By-One,” humans are not the only animals that appreciate the value of orderly lines.
Chen thought that the remains looked more like an avian species, so he looped in Lida Xing, a paleontologist at China University of Geosciences who specializes in Cretaceous birds.