Catching a Dinosaur by the Tail

Silhouette of tail bones, soft tissues, and feather attachment points.

Credit: Ryan McKellar/Royal Saskatchewan Museum

Researchers found, embedded in amber, part of a dinosaur's tail with its feathers.  "Jurassic Park" will need to be remade.  (Science Daily:  Amber specimen offers rare glimpse of feathered dinosaur tail)

Ryan McKellar, from the Royal Saskatchewan Museum in Canada, said: "The new material preserves a tail consisting of eight vertebrae from a juvenile; these are surrounded by feathers that are preserved in 3D and with microscopic detail.

"We can be sure of the source because the vertebrae are not fused into a rod or pygostyle as in modern birds and their closest relatives. Instead, the tail is long and flexible, with keels of feathers running down each side. In other words, the feathers definitely are those of a dinosaur not a prehistoric bird."

- Science Daily

Maybe the dino somehow got its tail caught in some sap and it yanked the tail free, leaving part behind.  Who knows how it got there but here we are, one hundred million years later, looking at its feathers.