They did fly!

The discovery of Archeopteryx caused a stir in the paleontology community, as it was the first sign that dinosaurs possessed feathers, and it was described as the missing link between dinosaurs and birds. As fossils do not preserve soft tissues like feather and skin, the only proof for the feathers were imprints in the rock, and some scientists argued that it was some other sort of soft tissue that caused these marks.

Now, though, the debate is over. Using light, scientists were able to determine the elements in different parts of the fossils, identifying chemically the presence of feathers 150 million years ago.

The findings were published Monday in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. The study was lead by Uwe Bergmann, a physicist at the Synchrotron Radiation Light Source SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory.

The use of sensitive X-rays were able to determine chemicals such as sulfur and phosphorus in the feathers, which differed from the iron and copper in the bones. Scientists hope that this technology can be used on soft tissue on older fossils, and hopefully on ancient soft-bodied organisms that lacked any sort of skeletal structure at all.

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2010/05/11/BAKG1DCC9M.DTL&type=science