At A Market In Myanmar, Scientists Discovered A Dinosaur Tail With Preserved Bones, Tissues, And Features Encased In Amber
In 2016, a team of scientists discovered a dinosaur tail, with its bones, tissues, feathers, and all preserved in amber. It was believed to be about 99-million-years-old at the time of its discovery.
The tail likely belonged to a young coelurosaur, a group that includes dinosaur species that are similar to birds with two legs. The dinosaur was no bigger than a sparrow.
The scientists knew the tail came from a dinosaur and not an average bird due to its flexible nature. Overall, the specimen shed new light on the evolutionary differences between the feathers of dinosaurs and birds of flight.
The research was led by paleontologist Lida Xing from the China University of Geosciences. Xing found the dinosaur tail preserved in amber at a market in Kachin State, located in northern Myanmar near the Chinese border.
It was originally meant to be a piece of jewelry or a souvenir. The traders at the market thought it was just a plant trapped in the amber rather than a prehistoric creature.
“I realized that the content was a vertebrate, probably theropod, rather than any plant,” Xing said. “I was not sure that [the trader] really understood how important this specimen was, but he did not raise the price.”
The amber sample weighed 6.5 grams and captured eight vertebrae from the middle or end of a long, skinny tail. The tail had articulated vertebrae, unlike prehistoric and modern birds, which have a fused tail vertebrae called a pygostyle.
Additionally, the dinosaur feathers had a poorly defined central shaft, meaning that the feathers were more likely to be ornamental than for flight.
The amber also preserved pigmentation from the feathers, giving the researchers a strong idea of what it looked like. When viewed under a microscope, the feathers suggest the creature was white and chestnut brown.
happystock – stock.adobe.com – illustrative purposes only
Soft tissue and decayed blood from the tail were identified in the amber as well. However, no genetic material was preserved.
“It’s amazing to see all the details of a dinosaur tail—the bones, flesh, skin, and feathers—and to imagine how this little fellow got his tail caught in the resin and then presumably died because he could not wrestle free,” said Mike Benton, a co-author of the study.
Before it wound up in the market, the amber was in a mine in the Hukawng Valley in northern Myanmar, an area that is likely rich with diverse plant and animal life from the Cretaceous period. Much of it gets entombed in amber.
After the mining process, large pieces of amber often get broken up to be turned into jewelry. Hopefully, the complete specimen can be found one day and show how the dinosaur’s feathers were arranged on its body.
The details of the findings were published in Current Biology.
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