Curious About... Dinosaur Feather Discovery
What
Ten perfectly preserved dinosaur feathers.
Who
A group of paleontologists who will be publishing their findings in journal Gondwana Research.
How
These feathers could be clues to how dinosaurs were able to survive the frigid temperatures while living inside the Antarctic Circle.
Where
Ok, get a load of this: they were found in Australia, but... they are from the Cretaceous period, when Australia was a land much more down under... as in the Antarctic Circle, as in Australia used to be joined with Antarctica.
When
The ten feathers the scientists discovered are believed to be as old as 118 million years!
Why
This is super important for the field of paleontology because, according to one of the a member of the team sharing the discovery, paleontologist, Benjamin Kear, at Uppsala University in Sweden says: “Our discovery … shows for the first time that a diverse array of feathered dinosaurs and flight-capable primitive birds inhabited the ancient polar regions.”
Huh
Even though these feathers will teach us a ton, they can't (at the moment) be connected with any specific dinosaur.
Wow!
Paleontologists have discovered dino-bird bones before in polar areas, these are the first fully fossilized feathers.
More Stuff:
Learn more about the dinosaur feather discovery with the National Geographic.
Curious about becoming a paleontologist?
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