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The tail of a 99-million-year-old baby dinosaur, including bones, soft tissue, and even feathers has been found preserved in amber! But give up any hope for a real-life Jurassic Park as there's probably no DNA as DNA has a half-life of about 521 years.


Paleoart by Chung-tat Cheung that depicts the possible appearance of the young Coelurosaur. Coelurosaurs being the clade that includes the most feathered dinosaurs discovered and as well as the families of some the famous dinosaurs from the Jurassic and the Cretaceous such as Compsognathus, T.rex, Gallimimus, Oviraptor, Velociraptor, Troodon and of course the best dinosaurs of all time, BIRDS!

Scientific American Article
Nat Geo Article
Original Report

Well if we can't make Jurassic Park with it then what's the fucking point of keeping it?

Seriously though, one must wonder what that dinosaur was doing to only get its tail stuck in the amber like that.

I won't ask I'll fucking politely demand it. One mini dinosaur please, thanks.

@Tyranid Warrior #1024649049375
I personally think the tail either bitten off by something or the rest of animal was devoured leaving only the tail.
@lisalombs

One bee humming bird coming right up!

for those wondering, it was a really small individual. It is pretty unusual for vertebrates to get stuck in amber, as most are large enough to get themselves out. I would bet that the animal may have been sick/injured or already dead when the amber covered it. Ants being in the amber as well would also make sense if that were the case.

Hopefully this can put some of those people who insist no dinosaurs had feathers to finally give it a rest. While I think some paleo-art sometimes takes is a bit too far in the other direction, we still have people thinking that they were literally just big lizards.

@Jacob
Yeah, some people are becoming too speculative with their artwork for my tastes. I hate those dog-faced Smilodons and uber-mammalian looking half-sail dimetrodons but I myself have argued against some traditional depictions such as Megatherium and Diprotodon, Why would those animals have large amounts of shaggy hair? Anyway, I'm hopeful that future media depictions of prehistoric animals are more like Saurian and less like pretty much everything else.

I really wish we could revive it though. damn you DNA Half life!

That's still an astonishing find, and is probably the worlds most valuable piece of amber right now.