"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 ...

Valentina Rossi first saw the 30,000-year-old griffon vulture as a master’s student in Rome in 2014. The fossil, which had ...

New research published in the scientific journal Geology reveals that the feathers of a 30,000-year-old fossilized vulture found in central Italy are preserved in a mineral phase called zeolite ...

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 ...

Most vultures' looks may be off-putting, but bearded vultures ... effectively covering their feathers in iron oxide. They are the only birds known to color themselves on purpose, and it is ...

Bearded vultures had been brought back from the brink of extinction through a project involving 120 captive vultures. Is this a success? The bottleneck effect may be a lingering threat for them.

Valentina Rossi received funding from The Palaeontological Association (UK) and The Paleontological Society (USA). She is currently receiving funding from the European Research Council (H2020-ERC ...

The Bearded Vulture's diet consists primarily of bones, with up to 90% of their food source coming from bones ...

They may be back, but vultures still face many dangers. With a wingspan of up to three meters, the bearded vulture is one of the largest birds of prey in Europe. In Germany, the species had been ...

One of the ancient vulture's fossilized feathers. These feathers were found to have been preserved by zeolite minerals. | Credit: Edoardo Terranova Scientists have finally solved the mystery of ...