Chinese paleontologist Xing Lida bought this piece of amber in a gem market in norther Burma. The seller thought it had a piece of ancient plant inside, but that isn't a plant; it's the tail of a small predatory dinosaur that lived 99 million years ago.
Detail. This dinosaur was about the size of a sparrow. The piece of amber is,
according to CNN, "about the size of a dried apricot."
Been seeing this making the rounds all over the place today, absolutely fascinating piece. Dinosaur research has been making leaps and bounds lately, and I'm excited to see where it's going to go next in the next few decades.
ReplyDelete(Also, while it may seem a small thing, I'd like you to know that I appreciate your usage of Burma instead of Myanmar - most sites I've seen always use the latter.)
Yeah, as I understand it Myanmar was imposed by the most recent dictator on the advice of his astrologer, which does not recommend the name change to me.
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