Around 99 million years ago, a juvenile dinosaur got its feathery tail stuck in tree resin, a death trap for the small creature. But its misfortune is now giving scientists unique insight into feathered dinosaurs that prospered during the Cretaceous Period.

Researchers said on Thursday that a chunk of amber - fossilized resin - spotted by a Chinese scientist in a market in Myitkyina, Myanmar, last year contained 36 millimeters of the tail of the dinosaur, complete with bones, flesh, skin and feathers.

The dinosaur itself was no more than 15 centimeters long, about the size of a sparrow.