A chunk of amber - fossilized resin - spotted by a Chinese scientist in a market in Myitkyina, Myanmar, last year shows the tip of a preserved dinosaur tail section in this image released by the Royal Saskatchewan Museum in Canada on December 8, 2016. (Photo/Agencies)
Scientists announced Friday in Beijing that a fossilized-feathered dinosaur tail has been discovered in a piece of amber, complete with bones and feathers.
Researchers believe that the tail belongs to a tiny dinosaur that lived about 99 million years ago during the mid-Cretaceous period.
A paper on the findings, co-authored by Chinese paleontologist Xing Lida, Canadian scientist Ryan C. McKellar and others, has been published in the journal "Current Biology."
The tail is six centimeters long, by which scientists estimate that the dinosaur was around 18.5-centimeters long. The tail is covered with brown feathers on the front and pale white feathers on the back.
"The specimen is very close to what it would have looked like when the dinosaur was alive," Xing said.
The dinosaur's feathers will be used by scientists to understand the early evolution of feathers, according to McKellar.
The amber specimen was found in Hukawng Valley in northern Myanmar. In June, Xing's team announced that they had found amber specimens containing the remains of prehistorical birds.
