Feathered dinosaur tail found in amber

In what must rank as one of the coolest discoveries ever made in palaeontology, scientists have found a feathered dinosaur tail, preserved in amber.

The tail includes vertabrae, feathers, soft tissue, while the amber also plays host to a prehistoric ant and plant matter, National Geographic reported.

The dinosaur tail, found in northern Myanmar, was described in a Current Biology study as being about 1.4-inches long (just over 35cm), with brown and pale/white feathers. Analysis of the tail also revealed that it had eight vertabrae, the publication added.

In a rather interesting spot of information, the sample was found at an amber market, where a jeweller had already started the shaping process. It was one of a dozen samples acquired from the market in 2015 by paleontologist Lida Xing, who led its study.

Scientists have found dinosaur feathers before, but they’ve never found a feathered dinosaur tail until now

So who did it belong to? Scientists believe the owner was a juvenile coelurosaur.

Scientists also analysed the sample to determine whether it could fly, but the presence of articulated vertabrae means that this isn’t the case. Modern birds have fused tail vertabrae to assist in flight.

Possible uses for the feathers may be as a “signalling function” or for temperature regulation, study co-author Ryan McKellar was quoted as saying by National Geographic.

Featured image: RC McKellar/Royal Saskatchewan Museum/National Geographic