Fossil With Preserved Tail Feathers and Skin Reveals Dinosaur Plumage Patterns

An undergraduate student from the University of Alberta has uncovered the fossilized remains of an Ornithomimus dinosaur with preserved buns feathers and gentle tissue . The singular specimen is offering of import insights into the feather patterns of these ancient creatures , while tightening the linkages between dinosaurs and birds .

The 75 - million - year - sure-enough fossil , discovered by paleontologist Aaron J. van der Reest in the Upper Cretaceous Dinosaur Park Formation of Alberta , is the first to show touch of preserved skin from the femur to the stomach in a non - avian dinosaur . It ’s considered the most perfect feather dinosaur specimen find out in North America to date , thedetailsof which can now be found at the scientific discipline diary Cretaceous Research .

psychoanalysis of the fossil shows that Ornithomimidae — a genus of omnivorous bipedal dinosaurs — were not covered in feathers from head - to - toe . Like advanced - Clarence Shepard Day Jr. ostrich , their leg were stark .

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( quotation : A. J. Reest et al . , 2015 )

“ We now know what the plume look like on the posterior , and that from the mid - femur down , it had bare hide , ” notice van der Reest in arelease . “ Ostriches use bare skin to thermoregulate . Because the plumage on this specimen is virtually superposable to that of an ostrich , we can infer that Ornithomimus was likely doing the same thing , using feathered neighborhood on their torso to preserve consistency temperature . It would ’ve looked a lot like an ostrich . ”

A flightless dinosaur , it stood 6.5 foot ( 2 meters ) tall , and featured a small fountainhead with a toothless beak . The fogey is only the third ornithomimus specimen to exhibit traces of feathers , and it ’s shedding luminance on how certain beast adjust to different surround .

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“ We are getting the raw information on what these creature may have expect like , how they maintain torso temperatures , and the stage of feather phylogenesis , ” say van der Reest .

As science report Ivan Semeniuk betoken out in theGlobe and Mail ,

dame are suppose to have germinate from a different line of dinosaurs than ornithomimus . Rather than suggest direct ancestry , the novel dodo suggests that many characteristic recognized in bird plume today were present long before , in a common root to both ornithomimid and birds . Together with fossils found in China that go steady back to a similar period , the young discovery promise to clarify how and when such features egress .

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Indeed , this specimen also tightens the linkages between dinosaurs and birds , particularly with regard to theropods — carnivorous bipedal dinosaurs .

“ There are so many components of the morphology of this fossil as well as the chemical science of the feather that are essentially undistinguishable from modern chick , ” sum subject area co - author Alexander Wolf .

scan the entire study at Cretaceous Research : “ A densely fledge ornithomimid ( Dinosauria : Theropoda ) from the Upper Cretaceous Dinosaur Park Formation , Alberta , Canada ” .

Photo: Jae C. Hong