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In 2016,a rock no bigger than a golf ball caught the eye of David DeMar,Jr., a Montana-based researcher and collections manager at the University of Washington’s Burke Museum. Initially, the rock seemed like any other found on the fossil-rich Hell Creek Formation in northeastern Montana. But DeMar’s keen eye and 10 years of subsequent inquiry have revealed something extraordinary: a 66-million-year-old feather encased in dinosaur dung.
After initial scans at the University of Southern California, the full extent of the feather’s preservation became clear. “The preservation was better than many of the feathers I studied in my thesis on Burmese amber,” says Nate Carroll, a paleontologist at the Carter County Museum. “But to find this in a coprolite was beyond expectation.”
The tiny feather, embedded in dung, tells a story about prehistoric diets and habitats. By studying such remains, researchers can deduce what prehistoric predators might have eaten and even the kinds of birds that existed alongside dinosaurs. This kind of research could shed light on the ecological web of the Mesozoic era and provide clues about the survival of birds after the asteroid impact.
This remarkable find opens up a new avenue for paleontologists.If more coprolites are analyzed with modern scanning technology, there could be an untapped well of information about feathers and other delicate remains. As more museums and field sites adopt CT scanning, scientists hope to uncover more hidden treasures like this feather. Whether it’s a rare type of feather, evidence of a feathered dinosauror a clue to bird evolution, each finding adds a feather to the quill of our understanding of ancient times.
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