Mystery Solved: Feather Preserved In Amber Is Actually Dinosaur Tail

In 2015, scientists were at odds at feathers that were found to be preserved in amber. Recently, it was found that what was preserved was actually the tail of a 99-million-year-old dinosaur, along with its bones, soft tissues and feathers.

The report, published in the journal Current Biology, discussed the evidence of feathered dinosaurs in fossil impressions. This is actually the first time that scientists were able to associate well-preserved feathers of a dinosaur, which in turn helped them gain a better understanding of their evolution and structure of their feathers.

The study, which was partly funded by the National Geographic Society's Expeditions Council, found that the semitranslucent amber sample, which was the size and shape of a dried apricot, managed to capture one of the earliest moments that differentiated feathers of birds and dinosaurs. The 1.4-inch piece of tail trapped in the amber was described to be of a chestnut brown color with a pale or white underside.

National Geographic noted that CT scans and microscopic analysis of the samples also showed that eight vertebrae from the middle or end of a long, thin tail may only be part of its possibly 25-vertebrae long appendage. Based on its structure, researchers believe it to belong to a juvenile coelurosaur, which is part of a group of theropods that include everything from the tyrannosaurs to modern birds.

Unfortunately, this particular dinosaur may not have been capable of flying, especially if the entire length of the dinosaur tail was covered in the same type of feathers as the sample. The study's co-author, Ryan McKellar, noted that such feathers may instead have served as a signaling function or a temperature regulator.

The New York Times reported that Mark Norell, a paleontologist from the American Museum of Natural History, noted the specimen as "spectacular." He also added that because of the vertebrae present with the feathers, there was no question that they belonged to a dinosaur that cannot fly and not another prehistoric bird. "This is a novel feather type that we haven't seen before."