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Mummified precocial bird wings in mid-Cretaceous Burmese amber Project ID: 0000C1012 Public
23 Media · 1 Specimen · Managed by: Jingmai OConnor

Our knowledge of Cretaceous plumage is limited by the fossil record itself: compression fossils surrounding skeletons lack the finest morphological details and seldom preserve visible traces of colour, while discoveries in amber have been disassociated from their source animals. Here we report the osteology, plumage and pterylosis of two exceptionally preserved theropod wings from Burmese amber, with vestiges of soft tissues. The extremely small size and osteological development of the wings, combined with their digit proportions, strongly suggests that the remains represent precocial hatchlings of enantiornithine birds. These specimens demonstrate that the plumage types associated with modern birds were present within single individuals of Enantiornithes by the Cenomanian (99 million years ago), providing insights into plumage arrangement and microstructure alongside immature skeletal remains. This finding brings new detail to our understanding of infrequently preserved juveniles, including the first concrete examples of follicles, feather tracts and apteria in Cretaceous avialans.

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  ID Part Object Taxonomy Type Date Added Publication Status  
000115314 wing dip:v:15100 Image 2020-04-30 Open Download  
000115303 wing dip:v:15100 Image 2020-04-30 Open Download  
000115302 wing dip:v:15100 Image 2020-04-30 Open Download  
000115309 wing dip:v:15100 Image 2020-04-30 Open Download  
000115297 wing dip:v:15100 Image 2020-04-30 Open Download  
000115306 wing dip:v:15100 Image 2020-04-30 Open Download  
000115294 wing dip:v:15100 Image 2020-04-30 Open Download  
000115296 wing dip:v:15100 Image 2020-04-30 Open Download  
000115293 wing dip:v:15100 Image 2020-04-30 Open Download  
000115304 wing dip:v:15100 Image 2020-04-30 Open Download  
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