Oldest mammal hair ever discovered is found preserved in amber dating back 110MILLION years 

The oldest piece of mammalian hair ever discovered has been found preserved in amber that could be 110 million years old.

Scientists also found a dinosaur feather at the same site in Teruel, Aragon, eastern Spain, and say the remains date from between 105 and 110 million years ago. 

The two pieces of resin containing three strands of mammal hair and dinosaur feathers were uncovered the Santa María mine near Teruel’s capital Ariño. 

Although mammal hair has been found imprinted in 160 million year old fossils, the previous oldest piece actually preserved dates from 100 million years ago. 

Both pieces date back to the Early Cretaceous period and have been ‘exceptionally preserved’ through a process dubbed ‘pull off vestiture’. 

This suggests the animals came into contact with the resin while resting or sleeping in a tree over 100 million years ago.

The feathers and hair would have then been ‘torn off’ when the animals woke up and tried to move as the amber had dried.

Microscopic scale patterns on the three hairs, their parallel predisposition and similar proportions, allowed the researchers to identify them as belonging to a mammal. 

While Spain is a known hot spot for Cretaceous fossils, the researchers were not expecting to find animal remains preserved in amber. 

Co-author doctoral student Sergio Álvarez-Parra from the University of Barcelona said: ‘The determination of both findings is very complex, but it is likely for the feather remains to correspond to the extinct birds Enantiornithes, like other feathers in amber.

‘Regarding the lock of hair, we should consider that the surface scale pattern is similar to the current mammalian hair.

‘Ariño was already known for its vertebrate fossils, such as the dinosaurs Proa valdearinnoensis and Europelta carbonensis, but no-one thought we could find remains from vertebrates included in amber.’

The dinosaur feathers were discovered in a piece of amber shaped like a stalactite in Saint Just near the municipality of Utrillas a few years ago.

Both pieces were formed between 105 and 110 million years ago, during the Early Cretaceous period.

Senior author Professor Xavier Delclòs, also at the University of Barcelona said: ‘The feature of the process described in this research is that a somewhat long time must pass between the animal’s contact with the resin and the pulling off of the vestiture.

‘Thus, the findings of this study and the new process shed light on the complexity of ecosystems during the Cretaceous.’

The Cretaceous period began 145 million years ago and ended 66 million years ago with the extinction of the dinosaurs.

Both pieces of amber are in the Palaeontological Museum of Aragon, Fundación Conjunto Paleontológico de Teruel – Dinópolis.

The findings were published in the journal Scientific Reports.