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Silicification of feathers in a modern hot spring in New Zealand

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  22 April 2022

Tao ZHAO Open the ORCID record for Tao ZHAO [Opens in a new window] ,
Liang HU  and
Yanhong PAN
Tao ZHAO*
Affiliation:
State Key Laboratory for Mineral Deposits Research, School of Earth Sciences and Engineering, Centre for Research and Education on Biological Evolution and Environment, Frontiers Science Center for Critical Earth Material Cycling, Nanjing University, Nanjing 210023, China.
Liang HU
Affiliation:
State Key Laboratory of Palaeobiology and Stratigraphy, Nanjing Institute of Geology and Palaeontology and Center for Excellence in Life and Paleoenvironment, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Nanjing 210008, China. University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, China.
Yanhong PAN
Affiliation:
State Key Laboratory for Mineral Deposits Research, School of Earth Sciences and Engineering, Centre for Research and Education on Biological Evolution and Environment, Frontiers Science Center for Critical Earth Material Cycling, Nanjing University, Nanjing 210023, China.
*
*Corresponding author. Email: zhaotao@nju.edu.cn
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Abstract

Fossil feathers have greatly improved our understanding of the evolutionary transition from non-avian dinosaurs to birds and the evolution of feathers, and may be the only evidence for their source animals in the fossil record. Hot spring environments have been demonstrated to be conducive to the preservation of fossils, but internal silicification of feathers was not observed in the only avian carcass so far discovered in ancient hot spring deposits. To determine whether feathers can be internally silicified, here we analyse feathers sampled from a modern hot spring vent pool – Champagne Pool – in New Zealand. Our results of scanning electron microscopy (SEM)-energy dispersive X-ray spectrometry elemental mapping show that the sampled feathers are silicified to different degrees, and one of them is pervasively silicified. SEM observations show that feathers can be silicified at the cellular level. Degradation is involved in the silicification of feathers, as indicated by the reduction of the abundance of carbon and the loss of keratin fibrils. Our findings suggest that ancient deposits of hot spring vent pools are promising targets in search for fossil feathers.

Keywords

birdsexceptional preservationfossil feathersopal-A fabricstaphonomy
Type
Articles
Information
Earth and Environmental Science Transactions of The Royal Society of Edinburgh , Volume 113 , Issue 2 , June 2022 , pp. 119 - 125
Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s), 2022. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of The Royal Society of Edinburgh

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