Exceptionally Preserved Bird Feathers Found in 66-Million-Year-Old Dinosaur Coprolite

Paleontologists in Montana have discovered remarkably preserved feathers of an ancient aquatic bird inside a fossilized dinosaur dropping, offering rare insight into why certain birds survived the asteroid strike that wiped out the dinosaurs 66 million years ago.

While some dinosaurs are thought to have had ‘fuzzy’ or ‘downy’ feathers (shown in this illustration as the yellow spikes on a Nanotyrannus’ neck), ancient birds (such as the one in the Nanotyrannus’ mouth) were more likely to have had feathers that look similar to the birds of today. Image credit: Andrey Atuchin.

“We rarely find fossils of birds and even more rarely their feathers, giving us such important insight into the evolution of this key aspect of their biology,” said Professor Gregory Wilson Mantilla, a researcher at the University of Washington and curator of vertebrate paleontology at the Burke Museum of Natural History and Culture.