Scientists discovered a 100-million-year-old bird trapped in amber which is almost perfectly preserved – VIDEO
Scientists found in Myanmar a 100-million-year-old chunk of amber which contains the head, neck, wing, tail and feet of a baby bird.
The hatchling had only a few days when it fell into a pool of sap oozing from a conifer tree and is the most complete fossil ever discovered in Burmese amber, according to scientists, who published their findings in the journal Gondwana Research.
“It’s the most complete and detailed view we’ve ever had,” Ryan McKellar of the Royal Saskatchewan Museum, co-author of the paper, told New Scientist. “Seeing something this complete is amazing. It’s just stunning.”
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McKellar explained that After years encased in amber of the bird’s DNA remained given that its flesh has likely broken down into carbon. But what is left now is a detailed impression of the creature.
“It’s neat because it preserves a very early growth stage,” McKellar told Gizmodo, noticing that the bird had just begun to grow its tail feathers.
Unlike the birds of today, the enantiornithine, the group of toothed birds which the hatchling is also a part of, had claws on its wings and teeth in place of a beak. They went extinct alongside the dinosaurs about 65 million years ago.
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