Scientists at the University of Alberta (Canada) have found a handful of Cretaceous feathers trapped in tree resin. The resin became amber and has preserved eleven different types of feathers for 80 million years, some belonging to non-avian dinosaurs, as well as plumage very similar to that of modern bird species such as the little grebe, capable of swimming underwater.
The feathers were found in the extensive amber collection of the Royal Tyrrell Museum, in the southern Canadian province of Southern Alberta, from the famous Canadian amber deposit of Grassy Lake, according to the authors of the discovery today in an article published in Science magazine.
Amber preserves microscopic details of the feathers and their pigment or color, from brown to black. Although no associated fossils have been found, Ryan Mckellar, co-author of the work, assures that everything points to the feathers of non-flying dinosaurs, specifically small theropods. The finding suggests that adaptation to modern feathers took place before the extinction of non-avian dinosaurs.
