Subject: Depends how big your tree is.
Author:
Posted on: 2016-12-09 14:06:00 UTC
BREAKING: National Geographic has today reported the simultaneous discoveries of the first complete sauropod trapped in amber, and positive proof of the existence of Yggdrasil the World-Ash...
hS
Feathers have incontrovertible proof.
I reckon we needed some good news.
SQUEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE okay I'm done now. XD
Anyway, I honestly didn't think amber fossils could get that big - nor did I think they'd bring up the possibility of finding an entire dinosaur preserved like this. Most likely it'd be a baby specimen, since as far as I'm aware, amber doesn't get big enough to encase even the smallest adult non-avian dinos.
Apart from that, though, hS basically covered everything I would've said. My inner palaeo-nerd is so excited! :D
BREAKING: National Geographic has today reported the simultaneous discoveries of the first complete sauropod trapped in amber, and positive proof of the existence of Yggdrasil the World-Ash...
hS
Insofar as there's a firm dividing line between 'feathered avian dinosaur' and 'feathered non-avian dinosaur', the presence of a flexible bony tail is it. (That and teeth, I guess, and maybe hand-claws.) This is something the size of a small bird which could swish its tail from side to side. Awesome.
It's also one of the very few Mesozoic dinosaurs we have colour information for; this shows most of the state of the art from last year. And it's not black! It's a lovely chestnut on top and white underneath.
The feathers themselves are apparently arranged as a fan down either side of the tail, like we see on Anchiornis and Microraptor specimens and in pictures; nice little confirmation that that's not a preservation artefact. And you can see for yourself that it's superfloof. I wonder whether this was from an adult (which would I think be among the smallest Mesozoic dinosaurs attested) or a juvenile? The paper suggests juvenile, based I think solely on it being small.
The paleoart showing up attached to the story is very nice-looking, too (though it's not from the paper, and I don't think it was made for this story; not sure though).
All in all: yay!
hS