Thursday, June 30, 2016

Rare Dinosaur-Era Bird Wings Found Trapped in Amber



Two tiny wings entombed in amber reveal that plumage (the layering, patterning, coloring, and arrangement of feathers) seen in birds today already existed in at least some of their predecessors nearly a hundred million years ago.
Skin, muscle, claws, and feather shafts are visible in both samples, along with the remains of rows of primary asymmetrical flight feathers, secondary feathers, and covert feathers. All are similar in arrangement and microstructure to modern birds.

3 comments:

  1. I've heard that many dinosaurs are believed to have been feathered.

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    1. If you think of a T-Rex as a massive big chicken with teeth, you're close. Naturally since they tasted like chicken, when mankind came along, they died off quickly. But imagine a Colonel's T-Rex franchise?

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