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takyon [soylentnews.org] writes:

The tail of a sparrow-sized feathered dinosaur has been found preserved in a 99-million-year-old piece of amber [bbc.com]:

The one-of-a-kind discovery helps put flesh on the bones of these extinct creatures, opening a new window on the biology of a group that dominated Earth for more than 160 million years. Examination of the specimen suggests the tail was chestnut brown on top and white on its underside. The tail is described in the journal Current Biology [cell.com] [open, DOI: 10.1016/j.cub.2016.10.008] [DX [doi.org]]. "This is the first time we've found dinosaur material preserved in amber," co-author Ryan McKellar, of the Royal Saskatchewan Museum in Canada, told the BBC News website.

[...] Dr McKellar said there are signs the dinosaur still contained fluids when it was incorporated into the tree resin that eventually formed the amber. This indicates that it could even have become trapped in the sticky substance while it was still alive. Co-author Prof Mike Benton, from the University of Bristol, added: "It's amazing to see all the details of a dinosaur tail - the bones, flesh, skin, and feathers - and to imagine how this little fellow got his tail caught in the resin, and then presumably died because he could not wrestle free." Examination of the chemistry of the tail where it was exposed at the surface of the amber even shows up traces of ferrous iron, a relic of the blood that was once in the sample.

I'm going to go out on an appendage and say that no viable DNA will be found in the specimen.

Also at Smithsonian [smithsonianmag.com], NPR [npr.org], Reuters [reuters.com], and the University of Bristol [bris.ac.uk].

Original Submission