{"id":115259,"date":"2026-09-12T20:06:25","date_gmt":"2026-09-13T00:06:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bgodinspired.com\/?p=115259"},"modified":"2026-09-12T20:06:25","modified_gmt":"2026-09-13T00:06:25","slug":"feather-in-dinosaur-poop-birds-survived","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bgodinspired.com\/index.php\/nature-and-creation\/feather-in-dinosaur-poop-birds-survived\/","title":{"rendered":"A Feather in Dinosaur Poop May Explain Which Birds Survived"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class='booster-block booster-read-block'>\n                <div class=\"twp-read-time\">\n                \t<i class=\"booster-icon twp-clock\"><\/i> <span>Read Time:<\/span>8 Minute, 42 Second                <\/div>\n\n            <\/div><p>In 2016, a scientist named David DeMar Jr. was crawling up a rocky slope in north-eastern Montana, looking for fossil fish. Then he spotted something else. In his words, it was &#8220;a dark, reddish-brown nodule about half the size of a golf ball.&#8221;<\/p>\n\n<p>It was fossilized dinosaur poop. Nearly ten years later, it turns out to hold something nobody expected: a feather in dinosaur poop, kept in three dimensions for about 66 million years.<\/p>\n\n<p>That little feather may help answer one of the biggest questions about the end of the dinosaurs. When the world went dark and cold, why did some birds make it through while so many others did not?<\/p>\n\n<h2>What Scientists Found Inside the Dinosaur Poop<\/h2>\n\n<p>Fossil poop has a proper name: a coprolite. This one came from the Hell Creek Formation, rock laid down at the very end of the age of dinosaurs. Based on its size and what was in it, the team thinks it was left by <em>Tyrannosaurus rex<\/em> or <em>Nanotyrannus<\/em>, a smaller tyrannosaur.<\/p>\n\n<p>People have been hunting fossils in Hell Creek for more than 150 years, according to the Field Museum in Chicago. This was the first feather ever found there. Lead researcher Jingmai O&#8217;Connor admitted it &#8220;probably would not have been found if it wasn&#8217;t for a lucky break.&#8221;<\/p>\n\n<p>The team didn&#8217;t crack the lump open. They ran it through a micro-CT scanner, which stacks thousands of X-ray images into one 3D picture. Nate Carroll of the Carter County Museum described what happened next: &#8220;Every hour processing the data revealed another feather, another scale, another bone.&#8221;<\/p>\n\n<p>Inside were several feathers, tiny scales from a gar fish, and leg bones from a small bird. It is a record, written in stone, of what one hungry dinosaur had eaten.<\/p>\n\n<p>&#8220;As far as I know, no one has ever thought to look for feathers or to study feathers in coprolites,&#8221; O&#8217;Connor said. The study was published in the journal <em>Current Biology<\/em>. The same Montana rocks have given up other surprises about how T. rex lived, like a <a href=\"https:\/\/bgodinspired.com\/index.php\/nature-and-creation\/t-rex-tooth-found-stuck-in-dinosaur-skull\/\">tooth left stuck in a dinosaur&#8217;s skull for 66 million years<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n<div class=\"convertkit-form wp-block-convertkit-form\" style=\"\"><script async data-uid=\"6491fb8269\" src=\"https:\/\/bgodinspired.kit.com\/6491fb8269\/index.js\" data-jetpack-boost=\"ignore\" data-no-defer=\"1\" data-no-optimize=\"1\" nowprocket><\/script><\/div>\n\n\n<h2>Who Was the Bird?<\/h2>\n\n<p>The bones and feathers belong to a hesperornithiform. That is a long name for a group of diving birds from the time of the dinosaurs. They could not fly. They swam and dove for their food, a bit like a modern loon (also called a diver). Some of them even had teeth.<\/p>\n\n<p>These are the first hesperornithiform feathers anyone has ever identified. And they turned out to be a strange mix.<\/p>\n\n<p>&#8220;Some of these diving birds&#8217; feathers seem to have been modern-looking and water-proof,&#8221; O&#8217;Connor said, &#8220;but they also had some smaller, fuzzy, primitive body feathers.&#8221;<\/p>\n\n<p>In other words, the outside was up to date. Stiff, waterproof feathers, built for going underwater. But underneath, close to the skin, they had an older kind of fuzz, more like what earlier dinosaurs wore.<\/p>\n\n<p>It isn&#8217;t the first time a fossil has kept its best secret hidden for a very long time. A <a href=\"https:\/\/bgodinspired.com\/index.php\/nature-and-creation\/la-brea-toad-fossil-nobody-noticed\/\">toad fossil at La Brea sat unnoticed for 94 years<\/a> before anyone looked closely.<\/p>\n\n<h2>Why a Feather in Dinosaur Poop Points to the Cold<\/h2>\n\n<p>About 66 million years ago, a huge asteroid hit the Earth. Many scientists think the dust and soot it threw into the sky blocked sunlight for a long time. The planet went through a dark, cold stretch often called an &#8220;impact winter.&#8221;<\/p>\n\n<p>Every bird alive today comes from one branch that made it through. Most of the other bird groups of that time did not. That includes the diving birds in this fossil, and a very common group called the enantiornithines.<\/p>\n\n<p>Modern birds have soft, fluffy body feathers. Down is the kind most people know. These feathers trap a layer of air right against the skin, and that trapped air holds in body heat. It is why a small bird can sit through a frosty morning and be fine.<\/p>\n\n<p>The research team suggests that the diving birds&#8217; fuzzy body feathers &#8220;may not have been as efficient for insulation as modern plumaceous feathers.&#8221; If that is right, then when the long cold came, these birds simply could not hold their warmth in as well.<\/p>\n\n<p>If a number like 66 million years is hard to picture, our free <a href=\"https:\/\/bgodinspired.com\/index.php\/how-old-is-the-universe\/\">How Old Is the Universe? explorer<\/a> puts deep time on a scale you can actually feel.<\/p>\n\n<h2>What the Scientists Are Careful Not to Claim<\/h2>\n\n<p>This is the part most headlines skip. The researchers did not say they solved the mystery.<\/p>\n\n<p>O&#8217;Connor&#8217;s own words were careful: &#8220;We think the types of feathers that these birds had, and\/or the way they molted those feathers, may have been one of the underlying causes.&#8221;<\/p>\n\n<p>Read that slowly and notice three soft words: <em>think<\/em>, <em>may<\/em>, and <em>one of<\/em>. There is also a second idea tucked inside it. Maybe the problem wasn&#8217;t only the feathers themselves, but <em>how the birds replaced them<\/em>. Nobody knows yet how these birds molted. But you can see why it could matter: a bird that is between feathers when the cold arrives has less to wrap itself in.<\/p>\n\n<p>Steven Salisbury, a palaeontologist at the University of Queensland, said the find &#8220;is cool because it&#8217;s actually the preserved feather in 3D&#8221;, but that more fossils are needed to test the idea. Scientists have suggested other reasons some birds survived, too. One idea is that the survivors lived on the ground, so they coped when forests were wiped out. Another is that birds with beaks suited to eating seeds could live on what was left.<\/p>\n\n<p>So the honest version is this: one small fossil has given scientists a real new clue and a good question to chase. It is not a final answer.<\/p>\n\n<h2>What Kept Some Birds Warm<\/h2>\n\n<p>There is something quietly surprising here. The diving birds were not badly made. Their outer feathers were modern and waterproof. They were skilled hunters in the water. From the outside, they looked ready for anything.<\/p>\n\n<p>What may have let them down was the small, soft layer nobody sees. The part closest to the heart.<\/p>\n\n<p>People are a lot like that. When life turns cold, when a job ends, a diagnosis comes, or someone you love is gone, it is rarely the impressive outer layer that gets you through. It is what you keep close. The people who sit with you. The small habits that hold warmth in. The quiet trust underneath everything else.<\/p>\n\n<p>It is worth noticing that one of the oldest pictures people have ever used for God&#8217;s care is exactly this one. Not a wall. Not a fortress. Feathers. Being gathered in close, under wings, while the cold goes on outside.<\/p>\n\n<h2>A Small Fossil and a Big Question<\/h2>\n\n<p>A lump of dinosaur poop, half the size of a golf ball, picked up by someone who was looking for fish. The things that matter most are easy to walk past, in rocks and in life.<\/p>\n\n<p>The science will keep moving. More fossils will turn up, and this idea may hold or it may change. But it leaves a good picture to carry into an ordinary day. When the weather turns, stay close to what keeps you warm.<\/p>\n\n<h2>Discussion Question<\/h2>\n\n<p>When things get hard, do you think the small, hidden things (like the fuzz under a feather) matter more than the big, obvious strengths? Tell us what you think in the comments below.<\/p>\n\n<div class=\"convertkit-form wp-block-convertkit-form\" style=\"\"><script async data-uid=\"6491fb8269\" src=\"https:\/\/bgodinspired.kit.com\/6491fb8269\/index.js\" data-jetpack-boost=\"ignore\" data-no-defer=\"1\" data-no-optimize=\"1\" nowprocket><\/script><\/div>\n\n\n<h2>Share This<\/h2>\n\n<p>Scientists found a 66-million-year-old feather inside fossilized dinosaur poop. It might help explain why some birds froze out after the asteroid and others made it. https:\/\/bgodinspired.com\/index.php\/nature-and-creation\/feather-in-dinosaur-poop-birds-survived\/<\/p>\n\n<p>Wild detail: those extinct diving birds had modern waterproof feathers on the outside, but old-style fuzz underneath. What was closest to the skin may have mattered most. https:\/\/bgodinspired.com\/index.php\/nature-and-creation\/feather-in-dinosaur-poop-birds-survived\/<\/p>\n\n<p>Someone looking for fish fossils picked up a lump of dinosaur poop in 2016. Nearly ten years later, it holds the first feather ever found in a coprolite. https:\/\/bgodinspired.com\/index.php\/nature-and-creation\/feather-in-dinosaur-poop-birds-survived\/<\/p>\n\n<h2>Questions and Answers<\/h2>\n\n<h3>What was found inside the dinosaur coprolite from Montana?<\/h3>\n<p>A fossilized dinosaur dropping (coprolite) from the Hell Creek Formation in north-eastern Montana, about 66 million years old, held several three-dimensional bird feathers, tiny gar fish scales, and leg bones from a hesperornithiform diving bird. It is the first feather ever found in a coprolite, and the first feather found in the Hell Creek Formation. The study was led by Jingmai O&#8217;Connor of the Field Museum and published in Current Biology in 2026.<\/p>\n\n<h3>Which dinosaur left the fossil poop with the feather in it?<\/h3>\n<p>Researchers think the Montana coprolite containing the fossil feather was most likely left by a tyrannosaur, either Tyrannosaurus rex or the smaller Nanotyrannus. That conclusion is based on the dropping&#8217;s size and contents, since no one can see which animal produced a coprolite directly.<\/p>\n\n<h3>Why might feathers explain which birds survived the dinosaur extinction?<\/h3>\n<p>The extinct hesperornithiform diving birds had modern-looking waterproof outer feathers but small, fuzzy, primitive body feathers underneath. Modern birds have fluffy body feathers, such as down, that trap air against the skin and hold in heat. Researchers suggest the older body feathers may have insulated less well, which could have mattered during the cold &#8220;impact winter&#8221; believed to have followed the asteroid strike 66 million years ago.<\/p>\n\n<h3>Has the feather theory about bird extinction been proven?<\/h3>\n<p>No. The idea that feather type or molting helped decide which birds survived the end-Cretaceous extinction is a hypothesis, not a proven fact. Lead researcher Jingmai O&#8217;Connor said feathers &#8220;may have been one of the underlying causes,&#8221; and outside experts such as Steven Salisbury of the University of Queensland say more fossils are needed to test it. Other proposed explanations include ground-dwelling habits and seed-eating beaks.<\/p>\n\n<h3>What is a hesperornithiform bird?<\/h3>\n<p>A hesperornithiform is a member of an extinct group of flightless diving birds that lived during the age of dinosaurs. They swam and dove for fish, somewhat like modern loons, and some had teeth. The group died out at the end of the Cretaceous period, about 66 million years ago, and the Montana coprolite contains the first hesperornithiform feathers ever identified.<\/p>        <div class=\"booster-block booster-reactions-block\">\n            <div class=\"twp-reactions-icons\">\n                \n                <div class=\"twp-reacts-wrap\">\n                    <a react-data=\"be-react-1\" post-id=\"115259\" class=\"be-face-icons un-reacted\" href=\"javascript:void(0)\">\n                        <img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/bgodinspired.com\/wp-content\/plugins\/booster-extension\/\/assets\/icon\/happy.svg\" alt=\"Happy\" title=\"\">\n                    <\/a>\n                    <div class=\"twp-reaction-title\">\n                        Happy                    <\/div>\n                    <div class=\"twp-count-percent\">\n                                                    <span style=\"display: none;\" class=\"twp-react-count\">0<\/span>\n                   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It may help explain why some birds froze out while others survived.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":115258,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_wp_convertkit_post_meta":{"form":"-1","landing_page":"0","tag":"0","restrict_content":"0"},"footnotes":""},"categories":[3708],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-115259","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-nature-and-creation"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bgodinspired.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/115259","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bgodinspired.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bgodinspired.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bgodinspired.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bgodinspired.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=115259"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/bgodinspired.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/115259\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":115260,"href":"https:\/\/bgodinspired.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/115259\/revisions\/115260"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bgodinspired.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/115258"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bgodinspired.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=115259"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bgodinspired.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=115259"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bgodinspired.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=115259"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}