A feathered dinosaur tail, perfectly conserved in amber

In 2015, Dr. Lida Xing, a paleontologist from the China University of Geosciences at Beijing, made a remarkable discovery on an amber market in Myanmar: a piece of amber holding the feathered tail of a dinosaur, perfectly conserved. This discovery led to a one-year research over the sample, made by an international scientific team.

This finding is remarkable due to the conservation of the sample. The tail likely belonged to a dinosaur that could be classified under the group Coelurosauria, which is a subdivision of the Theropod order: the predecessors of birds.

Can we imagine a feathered dinosaur?

The study managed to determine the size and type of species probabilities: rows of white feathers coming of the sides of its tail, making it fuzzy looking and with brown feather on its upper surface. The length of the sample disproves the possibility of the animal being an active flyer. It was a small, “juvenile” dinosaur, close to the size of a sparrow, around 15 to 20 cm.

But, How could it remain so intact through 99 million years? Edwin Cadena from the School of Geological Sciences at Yachay Tech, who’s an expert on molecular paleontology, answered shed some light over a few questions related to the finding.

Yachay Tech: How can amber conserve a sample so intact?

Edwin Cadena: Amber is a high viscosity natural resin when segregated by trees and with time, it crystallizes creating perfect time preservation capsules for everything trapped inside, including insects, seeds and even small vertebrates. On solid states it acts like a sedimentary particle (like sand or rock), it can incorporate water currents and stay preserved o rocks for millions of years. Other similar substances like tar or heavy sand allow excellent preservation of the specimens trapped inside them as well.

YT: Why is this finding relevant for science? Why is it not?

EC: Although filamentary feathered dinosaur impressions (extinct bird relatives) are common on many fossil deposits on China, and even the US, there are very few times this samples get preserved on a 3D state, like this tail found on amber.  On this state, the sample provides the possibility of understanding not just an important step on the evolution of the birds lineage, but also explore the possible preservation of original biomolecules, mainly proteins and fragments of DNA. We’re not talking about Jurassic Park, but it is a way of understanding millions of years of evolution on a molecular level.

YT: As a paleontologist, how do you feel about this finding? How does this look in the future?

EC: It’s a fascinating discovery, undoubtedly there’s a lot of research coming on this specimen. Especially in the field of molecular paleontology, seeking to find aminoacid sequences  and possibly preserved proteins or even DNA remnants. This finding also supports the results I’ve been showing with some colleagues: the importance of iron on the preservation of cells and soft tissue.

This is an important discovery that allows paleontologists to open the door of their own imagination to a new way of doing fossil research. On the Myanmar area where the fossil was found there’s a very important amber stoll. Having access to this can mean more complete figures on which chemical studies can be conducted on exposed areas. Original dinosaur keratin and skin pigmentation (melanin) can be identified. Discoveries like this let us understand our past to, someday, associate it with our future.