Scientists believe that a well-preserved fossil bed containing feathered dinosaurs holds a new biota, which is a distinct ecological group.

Discovered under a fossil collection called the Jehol Biota in China, the newly revealed even older fossils have "remarkably intact skeletons," some of which still have feathers or soft tissue, Live Science reported.

In the new study, researchers have dated the new biota to around 160 million years ago and believe the fossil group includes both the earliest known gliding mammal and earliest swimming mammal.

The Jehol Biota, which literally lies on top of the recently discovered group of fossils, is said to be 130 million years old, and scientists believe the organisms were preserved through a volcanic eruption similar to Pompeii.

Study leader David Hone believes the two groups of fossils came from the same area.

"They seem to be from the same environments, lots of trees and probably a lot of water," Hone, a dinosaur biologist at Queen Mary University of London, told Live Science.

The fossil bed, which is located in China's western Liaoning Province and nearby northeastern China, holds early birds, reptiles and mammals as well.

Some of the preserved organisms include mammals that once glided through trees, similar to the flying squirrel. Archaeologists also discovered pterosaurs and what Hone describes as "a weird little buck-toothed dinosaur."

While the researchers found dinosaurs with still-preserved feathers, they didn't find any actual birds in the fossil mix, but Hone believes they will within the next 10 years.

 "It has only been in the last two to three years that we've recognized that this is a place we should really be looking," he told Live Science.

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