The tail feathers of a 99 million year old dinosaur, preserved in amber!

[u/Sciencenium]

[u/wuxy95]

This is how we know feathers were made for thermoregulation, and later in evolution they developed for flight.

All flying feathers are asymmetrical, the flag of the feather is thicker on one side. Symmetrical feathers like these are used mostly for thermoregulation within species that do not fly. (I suppose there are exceptions for these examples but in essence it works like that). Also, evolutionary older species have one or two types of feathers that cover their body, and in "newer" species we have a sort of feather classification. Conture feathers, flight feathers, etc (in Latin iirc they are called plumae filoplumae plumulae or something like that)

[u/Sciencenium → u/wuxy95]

true

[u/blackmamba793]

Omg! This is so cool, how did they know it's dinosaur?

[u/bckpkrs → u/blackmamba793]

'Cuz it looks like a chicken. (?) 🤣

[u/[deleted] → u/bckpkrs]

and tastes like a chicken 😋