1 FEATHER BECAME 26 BILLION CHICKENS
A small striped creature the size of a turkey is uncovered in a fossilised lake bed in China. The dinosaur, which has spent 125 million years on the the lake bed before being discovered in 1996, is quite a surprise to scientists − a predatory dinosaur with thick plumage and a patterned face like that of a racoon. And importantly, Sinosauropteryx is the first dinosaur with feather-like plumage – but without wings.
The discovery of Sinosauropteryx in China offered clear evidence against the theory that feathers originated to allow birds to take flight. The first plumed ancestors of today’s 10,000+ modern bird species, including about 26 billion chickens, apparently had no ambitions to soar above their habitat, as palaeontologists and ornithologists had long believed. So what, then, was the purpose of feathers? The discovery of two fossil pterosaurs has now brought scientists back to a discussion of the first feather – and has shaken up the dinosaur family tree.
Predatory dinosaurs had feathers
The first fossil feather was discovered in
