A stunning piece of amber, mined in Myanmar, preserves the partial tail of a feathered dinosaur, ants and a beetle from the middle of the Cretaceous Period, about 99 million years ago. Credit: Royal Saskatchewan Museum (RSM/R.C. McKellar). Pretty. So pretty. Pretty to look at and pretty significant: for the first time, researchers have got their hands on the tail of a non-avian feathered dinosaur preserved inside a piece of amber for almost 100 million years. Unlike dinosaur fossils found in sedimentary rock layers, this little beauty isn't squished flat, which allows paleontologists to study the tail as it was in life. Another bonus: the amber appears to have preserved components usually lost to the ages, including what may be residual iron from red blood cells. But before you shriek "Jurassic Park!" hang on...That's not even the coolest thing about this find. Described today in Current Biology, the partial feathered dinosaur tail is not alone in the amber: a couple of ants and a beetle were also preserved in the ancient tree resin. And while the insects add a little ambiance, come on, it's the tail that's transfixing. It's tiny, about an inch and a half long, and likely belonged to a juvenile member of the Coelurosauria lineage. Those are the more bird-like of the theropods (bipedal carnivores). Famous coelurosaurs include T. rex, Gallimimus and Velociraptor, the latter belonging to the maniraptors, which would eventually evolve into birds. But hang on, enough with the family tree. They found a feathered dinosaur tail preserved in 3-D. This is awesome stuff, people, but don't just take my word for it. Here's the super-sciencey way study co-author Scott Persons, paleontologist at the University of Alberta, describes the amber: "Per pound, this is the most incredible fossil I have ever seen. It is just packed with stuff!" Yeah, baby.
Nice Piece Of Tail
Researchers have found Cretaceous Period feathers in amber before, but earlier samples were tougher to identify as belonging to a dinosaur. Because this specimen preserves the tail, however, and that tail is flexible rather than the stiffened tail of modern birds and their nearest relatives, the team can definitively say the "D" word.
