Discovered in the 19th century, scientists once believed that the first-ever dinosaur feather used to belong to the Archaeopteryx, a transitional dinosaur that lived 125 million years ago and bridged the gap between non-avian feathered dinosaurs and modern-day birds. PREHISTORIC SHARK WITH 'SPACESHIP-SHAPED TEETH' DISCOVERED ALONGSIDE THE MOST FAMOUS TYRANNOSAURUS"The morphology of the complete feather excludes it as a primary, secondary or tail feather of Archaeopteryx," the study's abstract reads. Due to the missing quill, researchers had no way of knowing what part of a body it belonged to. It has been previously assumed that the feather was a primary covert feather, but the LSF technology shows it does not have the s-shaped centerline needed to be a tail feather. “LSF detected the missing quill of the isolated feather when x-ray fluorescence and UV techniques did not,” study co-author Michael Pittman told Gizmodo.

Source: Fox News February 05, 2019 15:03 UTC