It is interesting to contemplate an entangled bank

“Happiness is not a matter of intensity but of balance, order, rhythm and harmony.”

Madeleine Albright (@madeleine) February 16, 2018

Impeach Trump

(via dragoni)

Need a stronger word than stunning.

A Feathered Dinosaur Tail with Primitive Plumage Trapped in Mid-Cretaceous Amber

Xing, l. et. al., Current Biology 26 (23) 5 December, 2016

Just published in Current Biology, Xing and co-authors describe the tail of a non-avian (non-bird) Theropod dinosaur. The dinosaur fossil is probably from a very young Coelurosauria, a dinosaur clade closely related to birds, and an ancestor of T-Rex. The fossil is entombed in Cretaceous amber from Kachin State, Myanmar,  which dates to about 99 million years ago. The plumage structure provides substantial insight into the developmental pathway of feathers. Unlike fossils in sedimentary rock, the amber encasement has preserved the feathers in pristine condition. Fine morphological details, including the spatial arrangement of follicles and feathers on the body, and micrometer-scale features of the plumage are present. Beneath the feathers, carbonized soft tissues offer clues of preservation history. The presence of iron suggests that remains of hemoglobin and ferritin might remain trapped within the tail. Most amber is much younger ( around 1 to 30 million years old) than this Cretaceous fossil resin, and thus was made by resin (not sap) at least 35 million years after the last dinosaurs roamed the earth. 

Below is a 16 mm long Mayfly in fossil amber from the same location in Myanmar. Note the exquisite preservation of fine details.