scientists in china recently found a golden chunk of 99 million year old amber with a tiny dinosaur tail covered with pristinely preserved feathers. it was a huge find and it made international news headlines. the amber adds to fossil evidence that many dinosaurs sported feathers rather than scales. they speculate that these early feathers were never intended for flight, but were either ornamental or used for insulation. and that the earliest dinosaurs did not roar, but rather cooed. i am endlessly in love with feathers, but do not have endless things to say about them, and i have posted a lot of them over the years. i’m pretty pleased with myself, to have come up with a connection between this feather and a 99 million year old dinosaur. and now it’s bedtime.

buse variable feather

autignac, france