Click on the images to Enlarge......
Veined Feather Barb
This picture shows a barb, judging by the pigments found in it probably black or grey. That mess of tangles that looks like a spiderweb? That's a spiderweb.
Filaments of a Protofeather
Seen here are the filaments of an individual feather. These feathers are morphologically similar to those of other non-avian dinosaurs.
A Modern Bird
This is one barb from the white belly feather of a modern grebe, a freshwater diving bird originally thought to be related to the loons but now thought to be totally separate, an example of a comparatively ancient type of bird--and one that's quite similar to those found in this new cache.
An Ancient Equivalent
Here you can see an isolated feather barb, and how similar it is to that of the grebe shown in the previous slide. There's also a mite in this photo!
Cross-Section
This one's kind of complicated, so let Science explain it:
"Cross-section through a feather with basally-coiled barbules, accompanied by a microphysid plant bug. The helical coiling observed within these barbules is most obvious in isolated barbules within the image, and is directly comparable to coils found in modern bird feathers specialized for water uptake. The high number of coils in the amber-entombed feather is suggestive of diving behavior, but similar structures are also used by some modern birds to transport water to the nest."
Phew!
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