A mind-blowing, science-altering discovery was recently made and it didn’t happen at a paleontologist dig in some deserted canyon in the middle of nowhere or in a laboratory. It was discovered at a market in northern Burma last year. Lida Xing, a paleontologist from the China University of Geosciences in Beijing, noticed a piece of amber that was far more valuable than a decoration or as a piece of jewelry. The semitranslucent mid-Cretaceous amber is roughly the size and shape of a dried apricot, but it holds a world of information. There was a dinosaur tail inside the amber and it was covered in feathers! Great, now we have to stick feathers on all of our dinosaur models that have reptilian skin.
There has been evidence that dinosaurs had feathers in the past such as fossilized dinosaur bones surrounded by compressed feather imprints as well as full feathers preserved in amber. However, this incredible discovery is the first that puts a direct link that some if not all dinosaurs had feathers. And since the feathers were attached to a tail, it rules out the sample being to a prehistoric bird. CT scans of the amber reveal eight vertebrae belonging to a thin tail that “may have been originally made up of more than 25 vertebrae.”
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Remarkably the 1.4-inch tail still has soft tissue attached. It is believed to be that of a theropod that lived in the mid-Cretaceous, approximately 99 million years ago. Based on the structure of the tail, researchers believe it belongs to a juvenile coelurosaur, from Greek, meaning “hollow tailed lizards.” Hold on to your butts because coelurosaurs are part of a subgroup of theropod dinosaurs that includes the tyrannosaurs.
This baby dinosaur’s plumage is described as a chestnut brown color with a pale or white underside.
So now we make dinosaurs right?
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Jurassic Park was able to recreate dinosaurs using just a stupid mosquito with dino DNA, so if scientists have tissue from an actual dinosaur it must be a piece of cake to recreate this coelurosaur. I can’t wait for designer dinosaur pets.
God creates dinosaurs. God destroys dinosaurs. God creates man. Man destroys God. Man creates dinosaurs.
[NatGeo]