Posted on 04/15/2017 2:35:43 PM PDT by ETL
It’s a discovery that's straight out of “Jurassic Park.” Scientists have found a tiny section of a dinosaur’s tail trapped in amber, and not only that, it has feathers.
Dating to about 99 million years ago, or the mid-Cretaceous period, the amber containing the eight dinosaur vertebrae originally came from Myanmar. While scientists have known since 1996 that some non-avian dinosaurs had feathers, and even suspected that fact 10 years before that, this new find can teach them more about how feathers have evolved over millions of years. The feathered tail in question came from a juvenile dinosaur, likely a small coelurosaur.
"The new material preserves a tail consisting of eight vertebrae from a juvenile; these are surrounded by feathers that are preserved in 3D and with microscopic detail," Ryan McKellar of the Royal Saskatchewan Museum in Canada, said in a statement. He said the tail "was long and flexible, with keels of feathers running down each side." McKellar is a coauthor on a new study describing the discovery.
The find shows the feathers’ barbs, and the microscopic barbules on them, in incredible detail; the feathers don’t have a well-defined central shaft, or rachis, a fact that tells scientists more about feather evolution. The top part of the tail was darker-- a chestnut brown-- than its underside. The amber even contains remains of soft tissues that have carbonized.
(Excerpt) Read more at foxnews.com ...
Forget evolution someone get me from nothing to the first living single cell creature. Why can’t that process be re created in the lab? Heck I will spot you long chain proteins, amino acids and a lighting bolt or two.
Exactly. And how did that accidental life that spontaneously occurred take it upon itself to reproduce?
I am assuming the first celled creatures were plants. How did they synthesize sunlight?
The wolf population of Wisconsin is growing rapidly.
An occasional mountain lion finds its way as far south as Madison.
Bears are in the area...
Hard to believe that a hummingbird or oriole evolved from that thing.........
There are bacteria called Extremophiles that live in the cracks and microfissures of rocks that derive their energy(food) directly from minerals in the rock & from the chemical processes associated with weathering etc. There are other Extremophiles that use heat from volcanic vents and process minerals again for food.
Some Russian scientists and a couple of dead American ones claim these are the sources of oil & natural gas and not reprocessed plankton etc from ancient oceans. The cool thing about this idea if true, is oil & natural gas are then renewable resources since these things exist deep in the earth’s crust at a high temperature and pressure and aren’t going away. These things aren’t theoretical they have been known about for years. In the past they’ve been viewed to be an interesting nuisance. Maybe they’re more!
And they are certainly present in surprising abundance at deep ocean volcanic vents happily living in and reproducing in hot poisonous volcano polluted water.
Rainbow color? Gay dinosaurs! No wonder they went extinct.
To remind us that we are basically just a bunch of monkeys?
At least that's what my cats tell me.
Devolving.
That rock art is only a few thousand years old at most. Condors, eagles, and other large birds were common then as now.
Thunderbird was most likely based on one of those.
.
You grew up prior to 1920?
#5 But, if humans evolved from monkeys...why do we still have monkeys? ;)
Same reason we have southerners and the Irish.
They are still evolving..... : )
Not necessarily. Remember this is FR where scientists got purged.
Good point! :)
I’ve probably survived this long due to my LACK of, ‘feeeelings.’
More people should try it! :)
Oh, you betcha! But there’s one LESS bear in Da Nort Woods these days, Beau got a 534# Black Bear this past fall.
We just finished butchering it. It’s been frozen since October; just got around to it last week. Bear steaks on the BBQ?
Yummy! :)
LOL! Good theory! :)
Looks cuddly....
That is a very big bear! Hope it cooks up well.
I have eaten several bear roasts, and they were quite good.
Delicious, so far! He was in very good shape. We rendered down some of the fat for lard and I’ll be making Bear Pot Pie with Uber-Flaky Bear Lard Crust!
The hunting dogs have been working on his bones for 10 days, now - and I have noticed a lot of circling Turkey Vultures - it probably looks like an accident scene from the air, LOL!
Not an inch of this guy has been wasted, as it should be. Beau is still trying to decide on how to showcase the hide. I really, REALLY want a standing mount; he can ‘greet’ people at the entrance to our Family Room, but Beau’s being CHEAP. ;)
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.