Dinosaur feathers unearthed in Alberta considered evolutionary gold

An extraordinary collection of fossilized feathers discovered in Alberta is shedding new light on the evolution of both dinosaurs and birds.

The discovery is considered significant as it offers new insight into the structure, shape and colour of prehistoric feathers, according to paleontologist Brian Chatterton.

The feathers, 11 in total, are believed to be anywhere between 99 million and 66 million years old, dating back to the late Cretaceous period. They were found encased in amber - a tough, translucent stone that offers exceptional preservation.

"It's the first discovery of three-dimensional dinosaur feathers," explains Chatterton, a professor at the University of Alberta, in a Globe and Mail story. "The only previous ones occur in China and they're all compression fossils, basically carbonized films on shale."

Representing four stages of evolution, the range of the feathers found is considered remarkable. Primitive single-filament protofeathers (believed to have come from non-flying dinosaurs) as well as "complex structures" equipped with side branches (feathers resembling that of the modern diving bird) are both present, according to the story.

While colour could not be seen in the feather fossils unearthed in the Chinese shale, Alberta's amber fossils reveal that late Cretaceous feathers were not uniform in colour. Chatterton said some were light and some were dark.

Mark Norell, the American Museum of Natural History's chairman of the paleontology, believes the findings support the theory modern feather adaptation was present before non-flying dinosaurs had become extinct.

Many, if not most scientists, believe modern birds are the descendants of dinosaurs, a theory made popular by the 1993 box-office hit Jurassic Park.

Alberta has been a hotbed for prehistoric finds in 2011. Miners at the oil sands in Fort McMurray stumbled on dinosaur bones believed to be 110 million years old, no more than six-months ago.