Fossilized poop may reveal why birds survived asteroid strike

Tiny feathers encased in fossilized poop are helping scientists understand why some birds made it through the mass extinction that wiped out the dinosaurs and others did not. Unearthed in Montana, the feathery find belonged to a bird that had once been devoured and excreted by a predatory dinosaur — possibly a Tyrannosaurus rex or smaller cousin — just before the asteroid strike that unleashed the extinction event 66 million years ago, according to a new study published in the journal Current Biology. The remains include the best-preserved feather ever extracted from Mesozoic deposits, or rocks from the age of the dinosaurs, and the discovery offers a rare glimpse into a make-or-break moment for many species.