Bits of filaments and feathers trapped in amber 70 to 80 million years ago offer an unusually wide-ranging view of what late dinosaurs and early birds were wearing. The 11 small, amber-bound specimens found in Canada span an evolutionary range of late Cretaceous fashion. They include what appear to be unbranched filaments - which have been proposed as the first stage of feather evolution - to bits of sophisticated, corkscrewy barbs like those seen in the wettable feathers of modern diving birds. A team from the University of Alberta describes the finds in the Sept. 16 Science.
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