The scan allowed the team to confirm the skull belonged to a specimen of V. iaai. It had a long, narrow, toothless beak, with a large bone at the tip of the upper jaw—a premaxilla—that is characteristic of modern waterfowl, which confirmed that this bird was an ancient relative of modern ducks and geese. But unlike those modern relatives, Vegavis’s beak and the structure of its jaw muscles suggest it was a skilled underwater predator, capable of snapping its beak shut and snatching prey beneath the surface, more like today’s loons and grebes.

Its braincase revealed an enlarged forebrain, which is a feature shared by modern birds.