![](http://uploads.neatorama.com/images/posts/382/65/65382/1379762113-0.jpg)
More
and more evidence of feathered dinosaurs comes to light as scientists
look in different places. Paleontologists in Canada began digging
through large museum collections of amber searching for tiny pieces of
feathers that no one would bother with before.
The
researchers combed through thousands of minuscule amber nuggets from
nearly 80 million years ago. Among them they found 11 M&M-sized
globules with traces of ancient feathers and fuzz. A number resembled
modern feathers—some fit for flying and others designed to dive. And
unlike fossils, the amber preserved colors too: white, gray, red and
brown.
But a few hollow hair-like structures stumped researchers.
The unidentifiable filaments weren’t plant fibers, fungus or fur, so
the researchers surmise that they are protofeathers (thought to be the
evolutionary precursors to feathers).
See more pictures at
Discover magazine.
No comments:
Post a Comment