Dinosaur tail found preserved in amber

[3point14]

The title says it all.

http://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-38224564

It has feathers attached and everything

 

[Lukraak_Sisser]

Cool.

 

[Porpoise of Life]

Wow, amazing!

 

[Aepervius]

Incredible. Well 2016 was not a total loss after all.

 

[Resume]

Is anyone keeping an eye on Hammond?

 

[The Sparrow]

Just heard about this. AWESOME!!

 

[casebro]

DNA?

 

[Nowhere Man]

No DNA. Sorry, Mr. Hammond.

Fred

 

[dasmiller]

Thanks for the OP. That's an amazingly cool find.

 

[rjh01]

Let us hope that more examples are found. Feathers are very expensive to keep (read need lots of time required to keep them in working order) so the benefit must of been huge. I wonder what the benefit was? Very cold climate? Need to run fast?

 

[Jrrarglblarg]

As always the stuff that's interesting is subtle

The feathers lack the well-developed central shaft - a rachis - known from modern birds. Their structure suggests that the two finest tiers of branching in modern feathers, known as barbs and barbules, arose before the rachis formed.

This helps draw a branch point in a cladogram.

 

[Venom]

I wonder what cryptids might still be walking the jungles of East Asia today

 

[Aepervius]

I wonder what cryptids might still be walking the jungles of East Asia today

None.

 

[Jrrarglblarg]

These guys evolved into chickens and ate the cryptids without salt.

 

[Belz...]

I just can't get enough of the fact that dinosaurs were just big chicken.

 

[Jrrarglblarg]

The longer I know my chickens the less I doubt it.

 

[William Parcher]

I just can't get enough of the fact that dinosaurs were just big chicken.

You can't really point at any dinosaur and say that it is a chicken (bird) ancestor. The big, culturally-iconic dinosaurs are not chicken ancestors.

 

[jaydeehess]

I just can't get enough of the fact that dinosaurs were just big chicken.

No longer the leather clad bad boys. They don't even roar!

 

[Belz...]

You can't really point at any dinosaur and say that it is a chicken (bird) ancestor. The big, culturally-iconic dinosaurs are not chicken ancestors.

I said they were just big chicken. Just like saying that you're a poopy head wouldn't mean that your head is literally made of crap.

 

[Jrrarglblarg]

This is why we can't have nice things.