Feathers In Lower Jurassic Amber

[Auspex]

Not directly ancestral to birds, but showing advancement of structure.

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/20...r-feathers.html

EDIT: I mis-typed the title: should read "LOWER CRETACEOUS" and "50 million years YOUNGER than Archaeopteryx.

Sorry about that (but it got your attention, didn't it?) I need more sleep...

[MB]

Not directly ancestral to birds, but showing advancement of structure.

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/20...r-feathers.html

EDIT: I mis-typed the title: should read "LOWER CRETACEOUS" and "50 million years YOUNGER than Archaeopteryx.

Sorry about that (but it got your attention, didn't it?) I need more sleep...

In this article, at least the news is moderate, the first news about this fossil were saying that the feather belongs at dinosaur owner of the teeth from another level, above....

For sure that it comes from a bird... but not from a dinosaur

[kauffy]

^^ that brings up the discussion of weather or not some dinosaurs of this time were begining to develope feather-like plumage....i guess we will never really know, unless we find a whole dinosaur with feathers incased in amber

[Auspex]

I've been following the thinking about the evolution of feathers for a long time. I posted the feathers in amber link mostly because I thought it was a really cool fossil, and partly beacuse of what it reveals about that scientific tennis match. This fossil could be from a lineage whose niche never included the need from flight, or they could be from a creature that had evolved back to flightlessness (it's happened many times).

Here's a story about feathered dinosaurs:

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/20...thery_dino.html

[MB]

I've been following the thinking about the evolution of feathers for a long time. I posted the feathers in amber link mostly because I thought it was a really cool fossil, and partly beacuse of what it reveals about that scientific tennis match. This fossil could be from a lineage whose niche never included the need from flight, or they could be from a creature that had evolved back to flightlessness (it's happened many times).

Here's a story about feathered dinosaurs:

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/20...thery_dino.html

Hi Auspex, thankyou for posting those news.

It seem that the french amber feather, have modern characters like the bird feathers, and yes , it is a cool fossil as you said, but we dont know its owner.

The fact that they have found a dinosaure tooth on a upper layer, don't says anything about the property of this feather (as how the journalist said the first time, I saw the french articles...)

For sure that almost true birds were living among feathered dinosaurs.

Thanks again for the interesting news .

[Guest Nicholas]

Great article, I'll be looking up more on this topic.

[Rfossile]

Hello with all

here another article on this discovery, like others fossils discovered in the same quary

http://www.esrf.eu/news/general/amber/amber/

Romain

[Auspex]

That technology is amazing! What next?

[Rfossile]

The same method had been used by french scientists to study embryos contained in eggs of dinosaurs discovered in Thailand 2 years ago. That allows without releasing the skeletons to reconstitute them. What avoids to damage the bones and makes it possible to work on enlarged models.