April 11, 2008 -- Seven feathers that either belonged to a non-avian dinosaur or an early bird have been discovered encased in amber in a remarkably vivid state of preservation, according to a recent Proceedings of the Royal Society B study.

The 100-million-year-old amber, excavated from a Charente-Maritime quarry in western France, was found near the fossilized teeth of a troodontid dinosaur. Troodontidae is a family of bird-like, two-legged dinos that, other fossils suggest, had feathers and laid eggs in nests, just as birds do today.

The teeth of dromaeosaurids -- another bird-like group including the famed Velociraptor -- were also found near the amber.

"These two non-avian dinosaur [groups] are currently known to be feathered and are thus possibly related to the fossil feathers from France," concluded the archaeological team, led by Vincent Perrichot, a researcher at Humboldt University's Museum of Natural History in Berlin.