Blurs

A 66-million-year-old fossilised dropping may contain one of the most remarkable snapshots of the final days of the dinosaurs — including a feather that could help explain why some birds survived the extinction that destroyed almost every other dinosaur lineage. There are fossils that preserve bones, footprints, and occasionally; soft tissue. And then there are fossils that preserve something far stranger: the contents of an animal's last meal. In 2016, palaeontologist David DeMar Jr. was prospecting in Montana's Hell Creek Formation when he picked up a small, reddish-brown fossil roughly half the size of a golf ball. It was a coprolite — fossilised animal dung. But something was sticking out of it. Under a hand lens, DeMar realised he was looking at a tiny feather. What followed has turned an unremarkable-looking piece of fossilised waste into an extraordinary palaeontological record. Researchers have now identified several feathers, bird bones and fish scales preserved inside...