"Fossil feathers are usually preserved in ancient mudrocks laid down in lakes or lagoons. The fossil vulture is preserved in ash deposits, which is extremely unusual," study lead author Valentina ...

A fossilized feather preserved with the volcanic rock. Picture ... of the moments before the vulture carcass was entombed in ...

And the preservation is so detailed that even the eyelids and wing feathers of the vulture have left a 3D impression in the rock, and microscopic feather pigment structures are present.

An analysis of a 30,000-year-old fossil vulture from Central Italy has revealed for the first time that volcanic rock can preserve microscopic details in feathers—the first ever record of such a ...