Wild Things: Feathered dinosaurs, king crabs and spotted hyenas
Traveling snails, brainwashed rats and more updates from the world of wildlife
- By T.A. Frail, Megan Gambino, Joseph Stromberg, Abigail Tucker and Sarah Zielinski
- Smithsonian magazine, November 2011
(Ryan McKellar)
Most of what we know about dinosaurs comes from their fossils. But a University of Alberta research team recently found a different kind of evidence: 11 feathers preserved in amber. The feathers were encased in tree resin about 80 million years ago. The amber pieces were collected from a deposit in Alberta, most in the mid-1990s, and stored in the Royal Tyrrell Museum until grad student Ryan McKellar recently analyzed them. Many dinosaurs, including the ancestors of modern birds, were feathered. It’s not clear which species left these, but some closely resemble fossilized impressions of dinosaur feathers. They range in color from pale to dark brown, and some appear specialized for flying or underwater diving. But they don’t preserve DNA suitable for cloning.
Additional Sources
“A Diverse Assemblage of Late Cretaceous Dinosaur and Bird Feathers from Canadian Amber,” Ryan C. McKellar et al., Science, September 16, 2011
“Flying shells: historical dispersal of marine snails across Central America,” Osamu Miura et al., Proceedings of the Royal Society B, September 14, 2011
“Numerical assessment and individual call discrimination by wild spotted hyaenas, Crocuta crocuta,” Sarah Benson-Amram et al., Animal Behaviour, October 2011
“A large population of king crabs in Palmer Deep on the west Antarctic Peninsula shelf and potential invasive impacts,” Craig R. Smith et al., Proceedings of the Royal Society B, September 7, 2011
“Predator Cat Odors Activate Sexual Arousal Pathways in Brains of Toxoplasma gondii Infected Rats,” Patrick K. House et al., PLoS ONE, August 17, 2011
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