Date: January 28, 2019
Source: North Carolina State University
An
international team of researchers has performed molecular analysis on fossil
feathers from a small, feathered dinosaur from the Jurassic. Their research
could aid scientists in pinpointing when feathers evolved the capacity for flight
during the dinosaur-bird transition.
Anchiornis was
a small, feathered, four-winged dinosaur that lived in what is now China around
160 million years ago -- almost 10 million years before Archaeopteryx, the
first recognized bird. A team of researchers from the Nanjing Institute of
Geology and Paleontology, North Carolina State University, and the University
of South Carolina analyzed Anchiornis feathers to see how they
differed at the molecular level from those of younger fossil birds and modern
birds.
"Modern
bird feathers are composed primarily of beta-keratin (β-keratin), a protein
also found in skin, claws, and beaks of reptiles and birds. Feathers differ
from these other β-keratin containing tissues, because the feather protein is
modified in a way that makes them more flexible," says Mary Schweitzer,
professor of biological sciences at NC State with a joint appointment at the
North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences and co-author of a paper describing
the research.
"At
some point during the evolution of feathers, one of the β-keratin genes
underwent a deletion event, making the resultant protein slightly smaller. This
deletion changed the biophysics of the feather to something more flexible -- a
requirement for flight. If we can pinpoint when, and in what organisms, that
deletion event occurred, we will have a better grasp on when flight evolved
during the transition from dinosaurs to birds."
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