In 2015, paleontologist Lida Xing was walking through a market in Myitkyina, Myanmar (or Burma). There he located a piece of amber that was sold as a jewel with the remains of some ancient vegetable inside:
“I realized that it contained a vertebrate animal, probably a theropod, and not a plant, as previously thought.”
Xing and his research team bought the piece of amber and, after analyzing it, discovered that it was the tail fossil of a carnivorous dinosaur that lived 99 million years ago . It is the first time that a dinosaur fossil has been found in these conditions. The level of conservation allows a perfect view of the feathers that covered the animal’s appendage . A year later, the results of the research were published in the journal “Current Biology”.
a movie fossil
Well, it would be. It is not that a mosquito preserved in amber was found to have bitten a dinosaur, it is that we have part of a real dinosaur. Can we start saving up for a real Jurassic Park ticket now? Sorry, but no. Bringing a dinosaur back to life is not that easy. However, the possibilities and rich information that fossils of this type provide for scientific knowledge about dinosaurs are all a fantasy of science fiction.
feathered dinosaurs
Ever since experts discovered that dinosaurs had feathers, more and more non-avian theropods are reimagined with plumage on all or part of their bodies. But the morphology and structure of these dinosaur feathers are difficult to study, so many questions about the evolution of plumage remain unanswered. That is why the discovery of a feathered tail preserved in amber can be a fundamental piece to increase our knowledge in this area:
“This specimen provides an opportunity to document pristine feathers in direct association with a putative juvenile coelurosaur, while preserving fine morphological details, including the spatial arrangement of follicles and feathers on the body, and micron-scale plumage characteristics.”
The amber piece, cataloged as DIP-V-15103, is 36.73 millimeters long and inside it retains a tail densely covered with brown feathers and a touch of white on the back of the appendix. The remains of two specimens of Sphecomyrminae , a species of ants that are now extinct, have been preserved in the same piece.
Although it is not the first time that feathers preserved in amber have been found, never before has there been the possibility of linking the plumage to a specific species with the success options that this finding offers. The tail has been preserved so well that researchers are sure it belonged to a dinosaur and not a prehistoric bird. Specifically, they point to a small non-avian coelurosary, the size of a sparrow, which could have been trapped in the resin even while still alive and could not escape.
But I couldn’t fly
The study comments that, if the entire tail of the dinosaur was covered by this plumage, it could be said that the animal did not have the ability to fly, but that, at most, it could glide. These feathers, which barely form a layer of fuzz as we might see in today’s chicks, suggest that the tail belonged to a theropod from the last branches of the evolutionary tree, perhaps a primitive maniraptoran.
A gem for science
The fossil is part of a group of amber samples that has been the subject of research by Xing and his team. The Burmese state of Kachin, in the north of the country, has one of the largest amber productions in the world. From its mines a huge variety of fossils preserved in amber has been married. That is why many scientists go there, above all, the quantity and quality of remains of ancient invertebrates is incomparable.
When Xing found the amber with the dinosaur tail, the piece had already been polished to be sold as a jewel. But that has not prevented extracting important data, such as the presence of iron , the result of the decomposition of blood. This fact raises hopes among researchers, who do not rule out the possibility of obtaining more chemical information in other fossils in amber. Xing hopes that the conflict in Myanmar will end soon and scientists will have better access to amber mines to prevent these fossil treasures from being lost to private hands. Dreaming is free and expectations are through the roof with this discovery, so the Chinese paleontologist even dared to affirm that:
“Maybe we can find a whole dinosaur”
It would be, without a doubt, the greatest discovery in paleontology. We will be attentive in case there is luck.
References:
Guerrero, T. 2016. Amber preserves a 99-million-year-old dinosaur tail. the world is.
Rincon, P. 2016. The amazing discovery of a dinosaur tail preserved in amber. bbc.com.
Romey, K. 2016. First dinosaur tail preserved in amber found. nationalgeographic.es.
Xing, L. et al. 2016. A Feathered Dinosaur Tail with Primitive Plumage Trapped in Mid-Cretaceous Amber. Current Biology 26, 24, 3352-3360. DOI: 10.1016/j.cub.2016.10.008.
