Life restoration of the feathered Wulong with colors inferred from preserved melanosomesThe ostrich is the largest living dinosaur.
A feathered dinosaur is any species of dinosaur possessing feathers. That includes all species of birds, and in recent decades evidence has accumulated that many non-avian dinosaur species also possessed feathers in some shape or form. The extent to which feathers or feather-like structures were present in dinosaurs as a whole is a subject of ongoing debate and research.
It has been suggested that feathers had originally functioned as thermal insulation, as it remains their function in the down feathers of infant birds and bytoday prior to their eventual modification in birds into structures that support flight.
Since scientific research began on dinosaurs in the early 1800s, they were generally believed to be closely related to modern reptiles such as lizards. The word dinosaur itself, coined in 1842 by paleontologist Richard Owen, comes from the Greek for 'terrible lizard'. That view began to shift during the so-called dinosaur renaissance in scientific research in the late 1960s; by the mid-1990s, significant evidence had emerged that dinosaurs were much more closely related to birds, which descended directly from the theropod group of dinosaurs.[1]
Knowledge of the origin of feathers developed as new fossils were discovered throughout the 2000s and the 2010s, and technology enabled scientists to study fossils more closely. Among non-avian dinosaurs, feathers or feather-like integument have been discovered in dozens of genera via direct and indirect fossil evidence.[2] Although the vast majority of feather discoveries have been in coelurosaurian theropods, feather-like integument has also been discovered in at least three ornithischians, suggesting that feathers may have been present on the last common ancestor of the Ornithoscelida, a dinosaur group including both theropods and ornithischians.[3] It is possible that feathers first developed in even earlier archosaurs, in light of the discovery of vaned feathers in pterosaurs.[4][5] Fossil feathers from the dinosaur Sinosauropteryx contain traces of beta-proteins (formerly called beta-keratins), confirming that early feathers had a composition similar to that of feathers in modern birds.[6] Crocodilians also possess beta keratin similar to those of birds, which suggests that they evolved from common ancestral genes.[7][8]
^Brown, Joseph W.; Van Tuinen, M. (2011). "Evolving Perceptions on the Antiquity of the Modern Avian Tree". Living Dinosaurs. pp. 306–324. doi:10.1002/9781119990475.ch12. ISBN 9781119990475.
^Farago, Jason (7 March 2019). "T. Rex Like You Haven't Seen Him: With Feathers". The New York Times. Retrieved 7 March 2019.
^Baron, Matthew G.; Norman, David B.; Barrett, Paul M. (23 March 2017). "A new hypothesis of dinosaur relationships and early dinosaur evolution". Nature. 543 (7646): 501–506. Bibcode:2017Natur.543..501B. doi:10.1038/nature21700. PMID 28332513. S2CID 205254710.
^Michael Benton, A colourful view of the origin of dinosaur feathers. Nature 604, 630-631 (2022)
^Cincotta, A., Nicolaï, M., Campos, H.B.N. et al. Pterosaur melanosomes support signalling functions for early feathers. Nature 604, 684–688 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-022-04622-3
^Slater, Tiffany S.; Edwards, Nicholas P.; Webb, Samuel M.; Zhang, Fucheng; McNamara, Maria E. (21 September 2023). "Preservation of corneous β-proteins in Mesozoic feathers". Nature Ecology & Evolution. 7 (10): 1706–1713. doi:10.1038/s41559-023-02177-8. ISSN 2397-334X. S2CID 262125827.
^Greenwold, Matthew J.; Sawyer, Roger H. (September 2013). "Molecular evolution and expression of archosaurian β-keratins: Diversification and expansion of archosaurian β-keratins and the origin of feather β-keratins". Journal of Experimental Zoology Part B: Molecular and Developmental Evolution. 320 (6): 393–405. doi:10.1002/jez.b.22514. PMID 23744807.
^Alibardi, L.; Knapp, L. W.; Sawyer, R. H. (1 June 2006). "Beta-keratin localization in developing alligator scales and feathers in relation to the development and evolution of feathers". Journal of Submicroscopic Cytology and Pathology. 38 (2–3): 175–192. ISSN 1122-9497. PMID 17784647.
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A feathereddinosaur is any species of dinosaur possessing feathers. That includes all species of birds, and in recent decades evidence has accumulated...
important factor in the evolution of feathers. Because feathers are often associated with birds, feathereddinosaurs are often touted as the "missing link"...
modernly feathered theropod ancestor, providing insight into the dinosaur-bird transition. The specimen shows distribution of large pennaceous feathers on the...
shows that birds are feathereddinosaurs, having evolved from earlier theropods during the Late Jurassic epoch, and are the only dinosaur lineage known to...
texture and covering. Feathers or feather-like structures (filaments) are attested in most lineages of theropods (see feathereddinosaur). However, outside...
birds is called ornithology. Birds are feathered theropod dinosaurs and constitute the only known living dinosaurs. Likewise, birds are considered reptiles...
ago. Dinosaurs can be divided into avian dinosaurs (birds) and non-avian dinosaurs, which are all dinosaurs other than birds. Birds are feathered theropod...
bird-like dinosaurs. The name derives from the ancient Greek ἀρχαῖος (archaīos), meaning "ancient", and πτέρυξ (ptéryx), meaning "feather" or "wing"...
lost during the fossilization process. However, recent studies of feathereddinosaurs and skin impressions have shown the colour of some species can be...
Yutyrannus (meaning "feathered tyrant") is a genus of proceratosaurid tyrannosauroid dinosaur which contains a single known species, Yutyrannus huali....
(2002). "'Modern' feathers on a non-avian dinosaur". Nature, 416: pp. 36. 7 March 2002.> Czerkas, Sylvia J. ed. (2002) "FeatheredDinosaurs and the Origin...
this, feathereddinosaurs have largely been absent from the series. Before the release of Jurassic World, new research had shown that real dinosaurs were...
Latin and Greek, meaning 'Chinese bird-lizard') is a genus of feathered dromaeosaurid dinosaur from the early Cretaceous Period (late Barremian) of the Yixian...
mean those advanced archosaurs with feathers (alternatively Avifilopluma) Aves can mean those feathereddinosaurs that can fly (alternately Avialae) Aves...
presenting lively dinosaurs and feathereddinosaurs as these concepts were first being considered. Cultural depictions of dinosaurs have been an important...
the Dinosaur Renaissance. Novel advances in paleontology, such as new feathereddinosaur discoveries and the various pigmentation studies of dinosaur integument...
Retrieved 17 September 2020. Long, John, and Schouten, Peter. (2008). FeatheredDinosaurs: The Origin of Birds. Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press...
Dominion, feathereddinosaurs are introduced with advanced methods by Biosyn. Pyroraptor and Therizinosaurus are among the feathereddinosaurs introduced...
prima, meaning "first" in reference to its status as the first feathered non-avialian dinosaur species discovered. Three specimens have been described. The...
əˈsɔːrɪdiː/) is a family of feathered coelurosaurian theropod dinosaurs. They were generally small to medium-sized feathered carnivores that flourished...
likely leave similar traces. A fourth feathered specimen of Ornithomimus, this time from the lower portion of the Dinosaur Park Formation, was described in...
maniraptorans; Maniraptora includes birds, the only known dinosaur group alive today. Most feathereddinosaurs discovered so far have been coelurosaurs. Philip...
feathers. They also speculated that feathers may correlate negatively with body size—that juveniles may have been feathered, then shed the feathers and...
four limbs also suggests that these dinosaurs could fly. The dinosaur's tail is long and feathered, with end feathers up to 29.27 centimetres (11.52 in)...
accomplished by ligaments under the skin, which in some birds and other feathereddinosaurs results in raised bumps or marks along the rear forelimb bone (ulna)...
China. Although "Archaeoraptor" was a forgery, many true examples of feathereddinosaurs have been found and demonstrate the evolutionary connection between...
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