A coprolite from Montana's Hell Creek Formation preserved feathers, fish scales and bones from a hesperornithiform, an extinct diving bird. The University of Washington team identifies the first feathers attributed to that group, including unusually modern-looking structure. NPR independently corroborates the find and its possible relevance to why some birds survived the mass extinction 66 million years ago.
Researchers examined a coprolite collected in 2016 from the Hell Creek Formation in Montana. The nodule, about half the size of a golf ball, contained feathers, gar scales and leg bones from a hesperornithiform, a group of extinct diving birds. The University of Washington team attributes the feathers to that group for the first time. NPR independently reports the exceptionally preserved feather and its dinosaur-age setting.[1], [2]
Two feathers have a square shaft with a spongy core, a combination the authors say is otherwise known only from living birds and their immediate ancestors. The next-oldest comparable example is about 10 million years younger and comes from early Eocene deposits in Denmark. Hesperornithiforms lived near water but disappeared at the end of the Cretaceous, so their habitat alone did not protect them from extinction.[1]
The team proposes that feather structure and moulting may have mattered alongside habitat when some bird lineages survived the mass extinction 66 million years ago. NPR likewise frames the fossil as a clue to why some birds survived while others did not. The proposal remains an interpretation from one specimen and has not been tested across other Cretaceous birds. The find supplies a rare anatomical comparison rather than a complete explanation of survival.[1], [2]
