Feathered dinosaurs muse magazine12/14/2023 Now we know that dinosaurs that were exceptionally distant from bird ancestry had feather-like body coverings, too – bristles on the tail of the ceratopsian Psittacosaurus, and a mane of simplified integument along the back of Tianyulong. Then feathers spread down to the base of the coelurosaur family tree. Later investigations found these traces to be fossilized replicas of muscle tissue, even though we now know that Pelecanimimus probably did have feathers, after all.) The new paper by Darla Zelenitsky and colleagues confirmed what paleontologists had hypothesized, acting as a test of expectations based on evolutionary understanding.īut how many dinosaur lineages were feathery, fuzzy, or bristly? We don’t yet know.Īt first, it seemed that only the dinosaurs most-closely related to birds had feathers. (Oddly enough, in 1994 Bernardino Pérez-Moreno and coauthors described what they believed to be fossilized protofeathers with the skeleton of the ornithomimosaur Pelecanimimus. The spread of feathers indicated that fuzzy integument was a common feature of the group that went back to their last common ancestor rather than a feature which evolved multiple times, yet no one had found definitive evidence of ornithomimosaur plumage. Over the past two decades, paleontologists have uncovered feathered representatives in every branch of the coelurosaur family tree with the exception of one – the ornithomimosaurs. The fact that feathery Ornithomimus were finally found also confirmed what paleontologists had expected. Paleontologists had debated this possibility in the context of the species Similicaudipteryx in 2010, and the Ornithomimus fossils added a new clue that the plumage of dinosaurs changed as they aged. First, the feathers on juvenile and adult dinosaurs were different. After all, Ornithomimus means “ostrich bird mimic.” But I got all giddy when I heard about this find for two reasons. Maybe that’s because the omnivorous dinosaur already looked exceptionally birdlike. No one got in a huff over the realization that Ornithomimus edmontonicus had feathers Ornithomimus edmontonicus had feathers. Personally, I think the look is quite fitting for dinosaurian royalty, although I’m certain diehard fans of nude dinosaurs are not so pleased. Even large, voracious predators had dinofuzz, raising the distinct possibility that T. rex.īut this year Xu and collaborators named Yutyrannus huali – a more derived, 30 foot long tyrannosaur preserved with simple protofeathers. Defenders of naked, scaly tyrannosaurs were quick to point out that Dilong was small – only about five feet long – and could have benefited from an insulating coat that would have stifled a full-grown, 40 foot T. The tyrannosauroids were just one branch of the larger coelurosaur family tree, and in 2004 Xu Xing and coauthors described an early tyrannosauroid with preserved fuzz called Dilong paradoxus. The majority of feathered dinosaurs discovered so far (including birds) were coelurosaurs. rex a chicken!” from fans of scaly prehistoric monsters – but 2012 featured the publication of a critical piece of indirect evidence. Paleontologists have been entertaining this idea for years – despite the plaintive cries of “ Don’t make my T. Since 1996, a steady flow of fossils from China and elsewhere have shown that various dinosaurs had some kind of accessory “integument.” We’re already well past the initial “Whoa! Dinosaurs had feathers?” moment, but each discovery tells us a little bit more about the evolution and biology of our favorite prehistoric creatures.įor one thing, even the mighty Tyrannosaurus rex was probably a bit fluffy. The fact that many dinosaurs were covered in various sorts of fuzz and feathers isn’t news. I’ve written about plumage-covered dinosaurs quite a bit this past year, my enthusiasm fueled by three discoveries that tested some paleo predictions and may change the way we restore dinosaurs in the flesh.
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