In science fiction, amber preserved the DNA that allowed rebirth of dinosaurs in Jurassic Park. In real life, amber preserved feathers that provide a new image of what dinosaurs looked like. 
 
 This undated handout photo provided by the journal Science shows an overview of 16 clumped feather barbs in Canadian Late Cretaceous amber specimen TMP. In science fiction, amber preserved DNA that allowed... (Associated Press) 
 
 This undated handout photo provided by the journal Science shows numerous individual filaments in Late Cretaceous Canadian amber. These filaments are morphologically similar to the protofeathers that... (Associated Press) 
 
 "Now, instead of scaly animals portrayed as usually drab creatures, we have solid evidence for a fluffy colored past," reports Mark A. Norell of the American Museum of Natural History in New York. 
 
 Examples of ancient feathers ranging from the simple to the complex are now being studied. They were preserved in amber found in western Canada, researchers led by Ryan C. McKellar of the University of Alberta report in Friday's edition of the journal Science. 
 
 Amber, hardened tree resin, preserved a mixture of feathers from 70 million years ago. Other feathers contained in amber dating to 90 million years ago are less diverse. 
 
 Specimens include simple filament structures similar to the earliest feathers of non-flying dinosaurs _ a form unknown in modern birds _ and more complicated bird feathers "displaying pigmentation and adaptations for flight and diving," the researchers reported. 
 
 Indications of feathers have been found on much older fossils, and the new discoveries indicate feathers continued to develop into modern form before the extinction of dinosaurs, explained Norell, who was not part of the research team. 
 
 A separate report by Roy A. Wogelius of the University of Manchester, England, published online June 30 by Science, reports the finding of trace metals in feather fossils, suggesting their colors included black, brown and a reddish-brown. 
 
 "Despite many reports over the past decade of feathered dinosaurs and new birds from China, only now are we beginning to understand just how diverse feather types were" millions of years ago, Norell said. 
 
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 http://www.sciencemag.org 

 A trove of ancient feathers both primitive and complex is providing scientists with an unprecedented snapshot of what some dinosaurs and birds looked like during the Cretaceous period. 
 
 
 
 An account published online Thursday in the journal Science describes a host of feathers and feather-like filaments found in western Canada. The structures were ensconced in 70-million-year-old amber. 
 
 Taken together, the feathers and filaments point to the diversity of this prehistoric plumed menagerie, said study coauthor Alexander Wolfe, a paleoecologist at the University of Alberta in Canada. 
 
 
 
 "The simplest feathers are of greatest interest because these protofeathers have been inferred to be the evolutionary precedent to evolved feathers," Wolfe said in an interview with The Times. 
 
 
 
 Scientists have posited that feathers developed first as single, hair-like protrusions meant for insulation, then began to grow in clumps, and then as increasingly complex structures. At some point, they were probably used for other purposes (such as attracting mates), and later for flight. 
 
 
 
 Many of the samples described in the study accurately match one of those stages. Some feathers even had coiled barbules, similar to those that have evolved on modern birds such as sandgrouses, which allow the animals to transport water to the nest to cool their incubating eggs. 
 
 
 
 "We never thought we'd have fossils to show all these feathers, from primitive stage-one [protofeathers] to feathers of modern aspect," Mark Norell, chairman of the division of paleontology at the American Museum of the Natural History, said in an interview with The Times. He was not involved in the study. 
 
 
 
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 Photo: An undated photo shows an overview of 16 clumped feather barbs in an amber specimen from the late Cretaceous period. Credit: Science 

 By Hans Villarica 
 
 Protofeather fossils discovered entombed in amber from the Late Cretaceous era support theories of dinosaur and avian evolution -- and make for one beautiful gallery 
 
 Dinosaur and bird feathers preserved in amber from a Late Cretaceous site in Canada reveal new insights into the structure, function, and color of animals that date back to about 78 million years ago. 
 
 Researchers led by University of Alberta paleontologist Ryan McKellar say these specimens represent distinct stages of feather evolution, from early-stage, single filament protofeathers to much more complex structures associated with modern diving birds. After analyzing the preserved pigment cells, the authors add that these feathered creatures may have also had a range of transparent, mottled, and diffused colors, similar to birds today. They can't determine which feathers belonged to birds or dinosaurs yet, but they did observe filament structures that are similar to those seen in other non-avian dinosaur fossils. Their findings appear in the current issue of the journal Science. 
 
 In the gallery below, with captions from McKellar, marvel at the beauty of these amber-preserved feathers. Then, in the Q&A that follows, learn more about how amber preservation works, the science of feather evolution, and the possibility of Jurassic Park-type experiments down the line. 
 
 How significant is this discovery? 
 
 This discovery is a pretty significant find. It supports a model for the evolution of feathers that has previously relied on compression fossils that are difficult to interpret and have been hotly debated. 
 
 Also, the amber-entombed feathers show that some of the most primitive feather types, also known as protofeathers, were still around just before the dinosaurs went extinct. They existed alongside feathers that are nearly identical to those of modern birds. Given what we know about the animals that were alive in the area at the time, it is reasonable to suggest that the protofeather-like specimens are attributable to dinosaurs and are the first specimens of this type of feather to be recovered from amber. 
 
 How does amber preservation work exactly? 
 
 Preservation in amber can vary quite a bit among deposits. Amber tends to preserve specimens in great detail because tree resin has antibacterial and drying properties that partially mummify inclusions and slow the initial onslaught of decay. Over many years, the resin polymerizes, turning into a plastic-like substance that is quite resilient, but burial usually results in heating that can have a profound effect on the inclusions over the span of millions of years. 
 
 The Canadian amber insect inclusions are largely preserved as hollow voids in the amber, with a thin film of carbonized, coal-like material, where the outside of the insect once was. The feathers appear to have fared much better, because they are fine and are not composed of material that decay easily. That said, many of the specimens show signs of partial decay, and there is no indication of how much, if any, original material remains intact. 
 
 What's the backstory of these specimens? 
 
 What originally got me interested in this project was a single feather fragment trapped in a spider web that had been given to Dr. Brian Chatterton. For my Ph.D. project, I worked on tiny, less than three millimeter, parasitic wasps trapped within amber from the same deposit. As part of this project I was able to go through the Royal Tyrrell Museum of Palaeontology collection of 3,000 or so inclusions in great detail. After finding a lot of feather fragments in this collection, I had the good fortune of meeting the Leuck family, amateur collectors in southern Alberta, who donated a pair of additional specimens to the University of Alberta. Later, we learned that Dr. Philip Currie was also examining a trio of specimens from the deposit. We pooled the material, creating a surprisingly rich snapshot of feathers in the Late Cretaceous. 
 
 This project underlines the importance of maintaining museum collections as well as the role that interested amateurs can play in palaeontology. Without these, there is no way that we would have been able to observe these important specimens. 
 
 According to your paper, these feathers represent several distinct stages of feather evolution. Could you explain each stage briefly? 
 
 The evolutionary-developmental model is an attempt to explain how the transition from small hair-like feathers to modern feathers with multiple tiers of branching occurred. A quick account of modern feather anatomy would go like this: Feathers have a central shaft called the rachis. Off of this shaft branch the tufts, which in turn branch off into small structures called barbules that are segmented like bamboo shoots. 
 
 Stage 1 consists of individual filaments that are comparable to hair in terms of overall appearance. Stage 2 consists of multiple filaments that arise from a single base, forming barbs. Stage 3 is where feathers become branched structures, either by forming segmented barbules on their barbs or by forming barbs on their central shaft, the rachis, and then combining these features to make two tiers of branching. Stage 4 is where the barbules on each side of the barb were altered to connect barbs together and form a sheet or vaned feather. Stage 5 encompasses a wide range of finer alterations that actually permit powered flight and a wide range of additional uses for feathers. 
 
 The notion of dinosaur specimens preserved in amber reminds me of Jurassic Park. Would what happened in that movie be plausible? What can we look forward to learning? 
 
 Put simply, no. The specimens that we examined are extremely small and would not be expected to contain any DNA material. To put this into context, the only genetic material that has been recovered from amber is from lumps of mummified insect muscle tissue in much younger Dominican amber that are approximately 17 million years old and well after the age of dinosaurs. 
 
 If we are able to obtain more material, we would really like to examine the chemical makeup of the protofeather-like specimens, as well as the pigments found within these specimens and other feathers. It would then be possible to investigate how much of the original feather material remains intact and gain a better understanding of the feathers' colors. 
 
 Unfortunately, these investigations rely on being able to create small breaks within some of the specimens and examine them under very high magnifications, such as scanning electron microscopy, so they are not possible with the limited number of specimens that are currently available. A larger collection may also allow us to verify some of the other stages in feather evolution. 

 Photo 
 
 Color is coming to the formerly black-and-white Mesozoic world of dinosaurs and early birds. 
 
 Not exactly high-definition color, and some formidable characters may show up in the same old drab and scaly wardrobes; they are dinosaurs, after all, with a reputation for resistance to change. But in time, you can look for splashes of color in museum dioramas of feathered figures from the age of dinosaurs. 
 
 For more than a decade, hardly a season has passed without more discoveries of dinosaur and bird fossils in China bearing impressions of feathers and traces of chemical coloring agents. Now, in Canada, paleontologists have found 70-million-year-old amber preserving 11 specimens showing a wide diversity of feather types at that time. 
 
 One specimen of so-called proto-feathers had a single bristlelike filament and some simple clusters. Others were complex structures with hooklike barbules that act like Velcro; in modern birds, this keeps feathers in place during dives. Still other specimens revealed feather patterns for flight and underwater diving. 
 
 Preserved pigment cells encased in the amber, along with other evidence, suggested that the feathered animals had an array of mottled patterns and diffuse colors like modern birds, scientists at the University of Alberta, led by Ryan C. McKellar, said in a report published Thursday in the journal Science. 
 
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 Dr. McKellar’s team said the amber pieces, though small, “provide novel insights regarding feather formation.” The preserved filaments “display a wide range of pigmentation from nearly transparent to dark,” but “no larger-scale patterns are apparent.”
– Dinosaurs just got a little more colorful. A batch of prehistoric feathers found in western Canada from about 70 million years ago suggests that feathers on dinosaurs and early birds were more diverse and complex than thought, reports the Los Angeles Times. "Instead of scaly animals portrayed as usually drab creatures, we have solid evidence for a fluffy colored past," Mark Norell of the American Museum of Natural History in New York tells the AP. The feathers and filaments, found preserved in amber, "display a wide range of pigmentation" and offer "novel insights into feather formation," says lead researcher Ryan McKeller of the University of Alberta. He and his team published their findings in Science, notes the New York Times. It's a "pretty significant find," writes Hans Villarica at the Atlantic (which also has a slide show and much background). "It supports a model for the evolution of feathers that has previously relied on compression fossils that are difficult to interpret and have been hotly debated."