Researchers find dinosaur tail perfectly preserved in piece of amber

Researchers from Myanmar have managed to discover the tail of a dinosaur perfectly preserved in a piece of amber.(Representational image)

New Delhi: Researchers from Myanmar have managed to discover the tail of a dinosaur perfectly preserved in a piece of amber.

The dinosaur is claimed to be 99-million-year-old complete with its feathers and perfectly preserved.

The finding helps to fill in details of the dinosaurs feather structure and evolution, which can not be determined from fossil evidence, the researchers said.

While the feathers are not the first to be found in amber, earlier specimens have been difficult to definitively link to their source animal, they said.

"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," said Ryan McKellar of the Royal Saskatchewan Museum in Canada.

"We can be sure of the source because the vertebrae are not fused into a rod or pygostyle as in modern birds and their closest relatives. Instead, the tail is long and flexible, with keels of feathers running down each side," said McKellar.

In other words, the feathers definitely are those of a dinosaur not a prehistoric bird.