Early Bird Plumage

After rummaging through thousands of amber inclusions housed at the University of Alberta and the Royal Tyrrell Museum of Paleontology in Canada, researchers discovered 11 amber encased-feather fossils that provide the most detailed picture yet of early feather evolution. The feathers likely adorned early birds and non-avian dinosaurs living between 70 and 85 million years ago—back when the Western Canadian landscape was a wetland covered in coniferous forests—and they represent various stages of feather evolution: from primitive single filaments, to multiple filaments joined through a single stem, to the intricate hook-like barbules found in modern birds. In addition to preserving minute, structural details often not appreciated in traditional fossils, the amber inclusions also preserved color.

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