Feathered dinosaurs were even fluffier than we thought

Date:  November 28, 2017

Source:  University of Bristol

Summary:

Scientists have revealed new details about dinosaur feathers and enabled scientists to further refine what is potentially the most accurate depiction of any dinosaur species to date.

A University of Bristol-led study has revealed new details about dinosaur feathers and enabled scientists to further refine what is potentially the most accurate depiction of any dinosaur species to date.

Birds are the direct descendants of a group of feathered, carnivorous dinosaurs that, along with true birds, are referred to as paravians -- examples of which include the infamous Velociraptor.

Researchers examined, at high resolution, an exceptionally-preserved fossil of the crow-sized paravian dinosaur Anchiornis -- comparing its fossilised feathers to those of other dinosaurs and extinct birds.

The feathers around the body of Anchiornis, known as contour feathers, revealed a newly-described, extinct, primitive feather form consisting of a short quill with long, independent, flexible barbs erupting from the quill at low angles to form two vanes and a forked feather shape.

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New species of bird-like dinosaur discovered in China

A team of paleontologists in China have discovered a new species of feathered dinosaur that roamed the earth around 125 million years ago.

The three-feet fossilised skeleton, named Jianianhualong tengi, is a troodontidae -- a family of bird-like theropod dinosaurs.

The species had large feathers on the fore limbs, hind limbs and tail suggesting that the closest common ancestor of birds and bird-like dinosaurs had asymmetric feathers, extending their earliest record deeper in time, the researchers said, in a paper published in the journal Nature Communications.

The feathers on the tail had a frond-like arrangement, similar to the genus of bird-like dinosaurs -- Microraptor, Anchiornis and Archaeoptery.

The tail feathers were also asymmetric, with one side of the feather vane noticeably wider than the other.

"This indicates the closest common ancestor of birds and bird like dinosaurs had asymmetric feathers, extending their earliest record deeper in time," lead author Michael Pittman, Earth scientist at the University of Hong Kong, was quoted as saying to the dailymail.com.

"This study therefore makes important steps towards reconstructing the early evolution and function of asymmetric feathers," Pittman added.



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Chinese Jurassic Park Yields Incredible Feathered Dino Find

By Tanya Lewis, Staff Writer | March 04, 2014 03:13pm ET

A fossil bed in China that contains some of the world's most exquisitely preserved feathered dinosaurs, early birds, reptiles and mammals may also be home to an equally rich set of older fossils from the Middle Jurassic, a new study finds.

These older fossils, dating back about 160 million years, contain theearliest known gliding mammal, earliest swimming mammal, a flying reptile and the earliest feathered dinosaurs. Now, a new study classifies these fossils as belonging to a distinct ecological group, or biota.

The new biota was found in layers of rock beneath the so-called Jehol Biota, a famous collection of 130-million-year-old fossils from China's western Liaoning Province and nearby northeastern China; the Jihol organisms are now thought to have been killed and preserved in aPompeii-style eruption. In recent years, fossils that are 30 million years older have surfaced from beneath the Jehol Biota, but have not been definitively linked to the same time period.

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New Feathered Dino May Be World's First Bird

Tanya Lewis, LiveScience Staff Writer

Date: 30 May 2013 Time: 04:26 PM ET

The skeleton of a Jurassic dinosaur from China could also be the oldest known bird, scientists report.

The fossil of Aurornis xui was found last year in a museum at the Fossil and Geology Park in Yizhou, China, long after a farmer first dug it up in the Liaoning Province. The feathery specimen represents the most ancient of the avialans, the group that includes birds and their relatives since their split from nonavian dinosaurs.

The research also reconfirms the birdlike fossil Archaeopteryx as an avialan, a classification that was challenged by some recent research.

Not everyone agrees that the new specimen is strictly a bird. "In my opinion, it's a bird," study author Pascal Godefroit, a paleontologist at the Royal Belgian Institute of Natural Sciences in Brussels, told Nature News. Even so, he added, "The differences between birds and [nonavian] dinosaurs are very thin."

"Traditionally, we have defined birds as things like Archaeopteryx and closer to things like modern birds," vertebrate paleontologist Luis Chiappe of the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County, who was not involved in the study, told LiveScience. "If you stick to the definition, this thing is not earliest known bird," Chiappe said, but that's missing the point, he said. What matters, is that it's a very interesting animal that "still helps us understand better the origin of birds," he said.

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