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Rare insect discovery reveals a new species from the dinosaur age
Confirmed
In Short: In Montana, paleontologists discovered remarkably preserved feathers of an ancient aquatic bird inside a fossilized dinosaur dropping, offering rare insight into the survival of certain birds during the asteroid strike that wiped out the dinosaurs 66 million years ago.
Paleontologists in North Dakota and Montana have made groundbreaking discoveries, including T. rex footprints and ancient bird feathers preserved in dinosaur dung.
In North Dakota, four connected footprints of a T. rex were found in the badlands near the Montana border, providing a rare glimpse into the dinosaur's behavior.
Tyler Lyson, senior curator of vertebrate paleontology at the Denver Museum, highlighted the significance of the footprints, stating, “Bones tell us an enormous amount about these animals, but footprints capture a moment of behavior. With a trackway, we can actually follow an animal as it moves across the landscape. That is incredibly rare for T. rex.”
Professor Gregory Wilson Mantilla, a researcher at the University of Washington and curator of vertebrate paleontology at the Burke Museum of Natural History and Culture, noted, “We rarely find fossils of birds and even more rarely their feathers, giving us such important insight into the evolution of this key aspect of their biology.”
The feathers found within the dinosaur dung provided an incredible window into predator-prey interactions 66 million years ago, according to Dr. DeMar.
Dr. Jingmai O’Connor, associate curator of fossil reptiles at the Field Museum, suggested that the types of feathers these birds had, and/or the way they molted those feathers, may have been one of the underlying causes of the selectivity of the end-Cretaceous mass extinction.
In Saskatchewan, researchers studying Scotty, the largest Tyrannosaurus rex skeleton ever discovered, found a fractured rib containing a vast network of mineralized blood vessels, providing a rare look at dinosaur biology from 66 million years ago.
Mauricio Barbi, professor of physics at the University of Regina, said, “It's like winning the lottery. Scotty's rib contains a vast network of mineralized blood vessels that has never before been observed in a fossil.”
Scotty's rib is an unusual exception, preserving delicate structures that provide a glimpse of what was happening inside the dinosaur's body while the injury was healing.
The dinosaur ended up in a salty marsh, where conditions slowed decomposition and helped preserve the fragile network of blood vessels.
In a separate study, researchers analyzed traces of the meteorite that caused the Cretaceous-Paleogene extinction event and found that it was likely a CO chondrite, a type of meteorite with less volatile elements than other classes of meteorites.
Dr. Philippe Claeys, a professor at Vrije Universiteit Brussel, noted, “This is challenging work. A CO contains much less volatile elements—like carbon, zinc, water, and particularly sulfur—than other classes of meteorites we’ve discovered so far on Earth.”
What this adds
The discoveries in North Dakota and Montana provide new insights into dinosaur behavior and the evolution of feathers in ancient birds.
The analysis of Scotty's rib provides unprecedented detail on dinosaur biology, thanks to the preservation of delicate structures.
Background
University of Kentucky researchers have discovered a fungus in a native Kentucky grass that produces rare chemicals to protect the plant from insects. The fungus, identified as Epichloë brachyelytri, lives inside the bearded shorthusk grass without harming it.
What's confirmed
- Paleontologists in North Dakota and Montana have made groundbreaking discoveries, including T. rex footprints and ancient bird feathers preserved in dinosaur dung.
- In North Dakota, four connected footprints of a T. rex were found in the badlands near the Montana border, providing a rare glimpse into the dinosaur's behavior.
- The feathers found within the dinosaur dung provided an incredible window into predator-prey interactions 66 million years ago, according to Dr. DeMar.
- Dr. Jingmai O’Connor, associate curator of fossil reptiles at the Field Museum, suggested that the types of feathers these birds had, and/or the way they molted those feathers, may have been one of the underlying causes of the selectivity of the end-Cretaceous mass extinction.
- In Saskatchewan, researchers studying Scotty, the largest Tyrannosaurus rex skeleton ever discovered, found a fractured rib containing a vast network of mineralized blood vessels, providing a rare look at dinosaur biology from 66 million years ago.
- Scotty's rib is an unusual exception, preserving delicate structures that provide a glimpse of what was happening inside the dinosaur's body while the injury was healing.
- The dinosaur ended up in a salty marsh, where conditions slowed decomposition and helped preserve the fragile network of blood vessels.
- In a separate study, researchers analyzed traces of the meteorite that caused the Cretaceous-Paleogene extinction event and found that it was likely a CO chondrite, a type of meteorite with less volatile elements than other classes of meteorites.
What's still developing
- Both were isolated tracks, providing little information about the dinosaur's movement.
- The spacing of the tracks also provided clues about the dinosaur's speed.
- While some dinosaurs are thought to have had ‘fuzzy’ or ‘downy’ feathers (shown in this illustration as the yellow spikes on a Nanotyrannus’ neck), ancient birds (such as the one in the Nanotyrannus’ mouth) were more likely to have had feathers that look similar to the birds of today.
- Crucially, these are the first hesperornithiform feathers ever identified, and they appear to represent an evolutionary middle ground — some feathers looked modern and waterproof, while others were smaller, fuzzy and primitive, resembling those of earlier dinosaurs.
- "Every fossil is a tiny snapshot of the past," said Jerit Mitchell, a U of R doctoral candidate in physics who leads the project under Barbi's direction.
- Scotty's remains were discovered by teams from the Royal Saskatchewan Museum in Saskatchewan's Frenchman River Valley, one of North America's richest sites for dinosaur fossils.
- "By piecing the clues together, we understand the past and how things could evolve in the future," said Marcella Berg, a U of R assistant professor of physics and former ORNL postdoctoral researcher.
- "Neutrons not only corroborated what we found with synchrotron radiation techniques that led to the discovery of blood vessels in Scotty's rib, but they also proved to be a highly valuable addition to our current studies in search of soft tissue preservation in fossils," said Berg.
- "This gives us an incredible amount of detail to better understand these properties without affecting the samples."
- Reference: “The origin of Cretaceous-Palaeogene impactor revealed by nickel isotopes” by Georgy V.
- The collision vaporized the space rock and triggered a mass extinction that wiped out 75% of Earth’s species, including the non-avian dinosaurs.
- By sheer luck, this fossil contains extremely rare feathers from the Late Cretaceous, including “arguably the best-preserved feather ever recovered from Mesozoic lithic deposits,” according to the study.