A feather found in dinosaur poop could help explain why birds survived the dinosaur extinction
A fossilized dinosaur dropping from Montana’s Hell Creek Formation contains an exceptionally preserved bird feather, along with additional feathers, bones and fish scales from a bird eaten roughly 66 million years ago. The feathers probably belonged to a hesperornithiform, an extinct group of diving birds closely related to the lineage that produced modern birds, and reveal an unexpected mixture of modern waterproof feathers and more primitive body feathers. Researchers propose that differences in insulating plumage, and possibly molting strategies, may help explain why crown birds survived the catastrophic conditions following the end-Cretaceous asteroid impact while every other dinosaur lineage disappeared. A meal eaten by a dinosaur about 66 million years ago may have preserved a clue to one of paleontology’s biggest mysteries. Inside a small piece of fossilized dung from Montana, scientists discovered an extraordinarily well-preserved bird feather, additional feathers, tiny bones and fish scales. The specimen provides a rare look at the plumage of birds living immediately before the asteroid impact that wiped out nearly all dinosaurs. The research, published in Current Biology, was …
