Secrets caught in time

1 Imagine a dinosaur in an ancient forest. It is running around looking for its next meal. With an angry cry, it opens its mouth, raises its beautiful feather-covered arms, and...                     

2 Wait, feathers on a dinosaur? For hundreds of years, people believed that dinosaurs looked like huge lizards. Just look at all those dinosaurs in books, films and TV shows! However, thanks to a piece of amber, scientists now know that this idea is wrong. In the amber from Southeast Asia, they found the tail of a dinosaur—with feathers.

3 These beautiful golden stones quietly keep pieces of the past. They can tell us whether dinosaurs had feathers, but that’s not all. They also help us understand that life on earth has always changed. A piece of amber from Northern Europe, for example, holds a flower. This species no longer grows in this area. But the find proves that it did 35 million years ago. In the future, amber may also help us discover if other species have changed over time.  

4 Thanks to amber, more than 300 unknown species have been discovered. In a piece of amber from Africa, scientists found 13 ants. Research shows that they are a completely new species. Scientists used to believe that ants came from the northern half of the earth. The discovery of this African species has changed old beliefs about the history of ants. Who knows whether this piece of amber will tell us more secrets?

5 As a window on the past, amber has been much studied. However, it’s still not fully understood. We should put more effort into research. Then we can use this key to unlock more secrets of nature.