It looked like a feather but it is a bacterium

1996/01/01 Elhuyar Zientzia Iturria: Elhuyar aldizkaria

• Mikrobiologia

Detection of a feather among fossils is rare. However, some discoveries of this type have been made that paleontologists have kept as curiosity. However, they were wrong, at least for the two British paleontologists. Paleontologists have reached this conclusion by renewing the fossilization process at the University of Bristol laboratory.

As observed in this trial, fossil feathers are fossilized bacteria, more specifically those that have taken the form of the original pen that was destroyed over time. If this hypothesis is confirmed, the role of bacteria in fossilization processes should be reconsidered. Undoubtedly, we could be on the threshold of a new space of debate among paleontologists.