They’re not many people’s favorite bird, likely due to their macabre associations, but recently a vulture has got the scientific community very excited.

That’s because the vulture in question is 30,000 years old, and its fossilized remains have provided a breakthrough in archaeologists’ understanding of the preservation process.

In a new study published in the journal Geology, an international team of researchers – led by Dr Valentina Rossi from University College Cork in Ireland – explained how not only was this vulture preserved in intricate detail, that the preservation process was something that had never been encountered before.

Found in 1889 near Rome, the fossilized vulture was ultimately handed over to experts in the decades that followed.

And when the research team turned their attention to it in recent years, they were astonished by what they found.

Thanks to the ash-rich nature of the volcanic sediment that had preserved the vulture, it was fossilized in incredible detail – with even the minute details of the vulture’s feathers still visible 30,000 years later, as Dr Rossi explained in a statement:

“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. When analysing the fossil vulture plumage, we found ourselves in uncharted territory. These feathers are nothing like what we usually see in other fossils.”

The microscopic detail of everything from the vulture’s eyelids to its tiny feather features gave the research team new insight into not only the bird, but the fascinating preservation process.

In their investigations, the researchers used a combination of chemical tests and electron microscopy to unveil what exactly allowed the vulture to be preserved in such intricate detail.

And their results were surprising.

The feathers, it turned out, had been preserved by a mineral known as zeolite – part of a volcano’s sediment deposits, but something that, until now, was new to the fossilization game.

But it was the unique qualities of zeolite that allowed the vulture’s feathers and soft tissues to be preserved in microscopic detail, as Rossi continued:

“Zeolites are minerals rich in silicon and aluminium and are common in volcanic and hydrothermal geological settings, and can form as primary minerals (with pretty crystals) or can form secondarily, during the natural alteration of volcanic glass and ash, giving the rock a mudrock-like aspect.

The alteration of the ash due to passage of water induced the precipitation of zeolites nanocrystals that, in turn replicated the feathers to the tiniest cellular detail. The fine preservation of the feather structures indicates that the vulture carcass was entombed in a low temperature pyroclastic deposit.”

What does this mean? Well, it’s proof that the vulture was killed and then preserved by volcanic activity, but that much was already clear.

But the fact that zeolite deposits can preserve fossils at a level of detail never seen before?

That is a gamechanger.

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