Feathered dinosaur tail found in amber

rhombus · **on:** December 08, 2016, 06:00:01 PM

According to an article published in the journal Current Biology, scientists have discovered the tail of a small dinosaur encased in amber. The amber had already been polished for jewellery and the seller thought it was plant material inside the amber, but on closer inspection it turned out to be the tail of a feathered dinosaur about the size of a sparrow. The specimen includes the preserved bones, flesh, skin, and feathers of the small dinosaur. This gives us our best look to date at what these feathers looked like, how they were incorporated into the dinosaur's anatomy, and other details that we have been unable to gleam from fossil records. Additionally there are hints that some of the organic material may have been retained in trace amounts.

Overall, a truly amazing find.

Further Sources:
http://www.cnn.com/2016/12/08/health/dinos...trnd/index.html
http://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-38224564

Coyote_A · **Reply #1 on:** December 20, 2016, 06:30:38 AM

Quite fascinating indeed. I've read an article about this find last week... Do you think it could've been Guido's tail?

ADFan185 · **Reply #2 on:** December 20, 2016, 06:33:46 AM

Ah sounds very interesting I'll have to read it later on today

rhombus · **Reply #3 on:** December 20, 2016, 01:28:17 PM

Quote from: Coyote_A,Dec 20 2016 on 05:30 AM

Quite fascinating indeed. I've read an article about this find last week... Do you think it could've been Guido's tail?

If so then Guido met quite a sticky end.

ADFan185 · **Reply #4 on:** December 20, 2016, 01:47:28 PM

Yes yes he did but I will read it great find

Coyote_A · **Reply #5 on:** December 20, 2016, 01:52:24 PM

Quote from: rhombus,Dec 20 2016 on 09:28 PM

If so then Guido met quite a sticky end.

Well, at the very least he had to part with his tail at some point... Hm-m-m, I'm sure there's a way to turn this into a funny little fanfic.

Ducky123 · **Reply #6 on:** December 20, 2016, 03:41:24 PM

Quote

Well, at the very least he had to part with his tail at some point... Hm-m-m, I'm sure there's a way to turn this into a funny little fanfic. laugh.gif

Well, I won't stop you

Really interesting news either way, I completely missed that we had a thread about it here

Kor · **Reply #7 on:** December 20, 2016, 09:47:53 PM

That is a great find. Imagine what they can discover from it.

ADFan185 · **Reply #8 on:** December 21, 2016, 04:51:05 AM

Do you think with fossil's they could bring back a dinosaur?

vonboy · **Reply #9 on:** December 21, 2016, 10:05:54 AM

Quote from: ADFan185,Dec 21 2016 on 02:51 AM

Do you think with fossil's they could bring back a dinosaur?

Pretty much no chance of that. The unfortunate thing is DNA itself will slowly decay over time. I don't remember the exact number, but once DNA get's around a million or so years old, it decays to the point that enough of the genetic code is lost, and it can't be used for cloning.

Coyote_A · **Reply #10 on:** December 21, 2016, 11:54:59 AM

Yup, the article I've read addressed this question and they said there was no snowball chance in hell a complete strand of DNA could be recovered from that tail.

DarkHououmon · **Reply #11 on:** December 21, 2016, 04:42:03 PM

Quote from: ADFan185,Dec 21 2016 on 04:51 AM

Do you think with fossil's they could bring back a dinosaur?

The closest way to creating a dinosaur is by manipulating the DNA of birds, such as chickens. This has been done already, and embryos have shown signs of having teeth and I think other things as well (although they are not allowed to hatch far as I know). Theoretically, it might be possible to create something like a dinosaur this way. But a specific species of dinosaur that we already know existed, such as gallimimus, velociraptor, etc? Very unlikely.

vonboy · **Reply #12 on:** December 21, 2016, 07:49:27 PM

Quote from: DarkHououmon,Dec 21 2016 on 02:42 PM

Quote from: ADFan185,Dec 21 2016 on 04:51 AM
Do you think with fossil's they could bring back a dinosaur?
The closest way to creating a dinosaur is by manipulating the DNA of birds, such as chickens. This has been done already, and embryos have shown signs of having teeth and I think other things as well (although they are not allowed to hatch far as I know). Theoretically, it might be possible to create something like a dinosaur this way. But a specific species of dinosaur that we already know existed, such as gallimimus, velociraptor, etc? Very unlikely.

I mean, someday we'll be able to get something close just by manipulating DNA ourselves, but it won't really be any dinosaur from the past. It'll be our best approximation of a dinosaur from the past. We won't have any DNA to compare it to, just what fossil evidence that makes us THINK that dinosaur was like, to make a new one out of, by splicing and manipulating the DNA of dinosaur ancestors that are still around today, like birds.