Ummm, it’s a fossil today! A very cool one.

Eoconfuciusornis. Credit: Dr. Xiaoli Wang.

New research from North Carolina State University, the Chinese Academy of Sciences and Linyi University has found evidence of original keratin and melanosome preservation in a 130-million-year-old Eoconfuciusornis specimen. The work extends the timeframe in which original molecules may preserve, and demonstrates the ability to distinguish between ancient microstructures in fossils.

Eoconfuciusornis, crow-sized primitive birds that lived in what is now China around 130 million years ago, are the earliest birds to have a keratinous beak and no teeth, like modern birds. Previous studies argued that the feathers of these and other ancient birds and dinosaurs preserved small, round structures interpreted to be melanosomes – pigment-containing organelles that, along with other pigments, give feathers their color. However, without additional evidence, it was not possible to prove that these structures weren’t just microbes that had coated the feather during decomposition and fossilization.

Full story is here.