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edIII [soylentnews.org] writes:

Parts of feathers have been discovered before, but these two dinosaur-era bird wings [zmescience.com], however, "come complete with bone, skin, muscle, tissue and tracts of feathers".

While it’s generally agreed that virtually all dinosaurs had feathers, scientists have to base their conclusions on findings that tell very little. The few dinosaurs that became fossilized feathers and all, like the famous Archaeopteryx, only provide a 2-D picture with no depth — besides they’re also rare.

“The biggest problem we face with feathers in amber is that we usually get small fragments or isolated feathers, and we’re never quite sure who produced [them],” says co-author Ryan McKellar, curator of invertebrate palaeontology at Canada’s Royal Saskatchewan Museum. “We don’t get something like this. It’s mind-blowingly cool.”

Unfortunately, this did not lead towards any new information about which came first, the chicken or the egg.

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