Feather in 66‑million‑year‑old dinosaur poop offers clues to bird survival after asteroid impact

A feather preserved inside a fossilized dinosaur droppings sample dated to 66 million years ago has been identified as belonging to an extinct bird. The feather’s structure shows it was a primitive, insulating type, unlike the more advanced feathers of modern birds. Scientists suggest that such plumage could have provided thermal protection during the severe post‑impact winter that followed the asteroid strike that ended the Cretaceous period. The discovery is the first feather found in dinosaur coprolite, providing direct evidence of early avian biology and shedding light on how early birds may have survived the catastrophic environmental changes of the K‑T boundary.