Smithsonian Magazine · People & society

66-Million-Year-Old Feather in Dinosaur Poop Offers Clues to Mass Extinction Survival

A remarkably preserved feather, found embedded in a 66-million-year-old fossilized dinosaur dropping, is providing scientists with rare insights into the birds that coexisted with dinosaurs and may help explain why some avian species survived a mass extinction event.

Analysis of the feather and coprolite revealed bone fragments from a hesperornithiform, a flightless aquatic bird related to modern birds but which went extinct during the mass extinction.

This is the first time such detailed plumage has been found within a coprolite. The primary feather has a unique structure with a square shaft and a lightweight, sponge-like core, not previously seen in Mesozoic feathers.

Two smaller, primitive body feathers were also identified. These might have been insufficient to keep hesperornithiforms warm during the drastic global cooling that followed the asteroid impact, potentially contributing to their extinction.

The asteroid impact caused widespread environmental catastrophe, including prolonged cold and darkness. The feather analysis suggests some birds may have succumbed to the cold temperatures.

The coprolite, possibly from a young tyrannosaur, also contained fish scales, indicating the bird's last meal, creating a rare food chain snapshot.

While coprolites are a valuable source of information, some experts caution that the preserved body feathers alone may not fully explain the differential survival of bird species during the mass extinction.

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