Experts think the feathered dromaeosaur looked like this.
| Experts think the feathered dromaeosaur looked like this. |
Farmers in northeastern china found the fossil of a duck-size dromaeosaur (dro-me-uh-sawr) on their land last year. Little did they know that the fossil might settle a hot scientific debate: Are dinosaurs the closest relatives of birds? The remains of the young dromaeosaur, revealed last week by the team of Chinese and American paleontologists who studied them, are the clearest link ever between birds and dinosaurs. The specimen boasts the best-preserved body covering of several birdlike dinosaur fossils found in recent years. It shows at least three different kinds of feathers, from head to tail.
"This fossil is the strongest evidence yet that dinosaurs were the ancestors of birds," said Richard Prum, an ornithologist (bird specialist) from the University of Kansas Natural History Museum. "It has things that are undeniably feathers, and it is clearly a small, vicious theropod similar to the velociraptors that chased the kids around the kitchen in Jurassic Park."
|  Short feather patterns appear all over the fossil's body, except for the lower legs. Its arms had longer feathers. |
Did T. Rex have feathers?
The newfound fossil is between 124 million and 147 million years old. Dromaeosaurs didn’t fly: they had no wings! So why did they have feathers? Scientists are still exploring that question. Some say dinosaurs developed primitive feathers for warmth, to attract mates or distract predators. Over millions of years feathers developed from tiny tufts of fluff to their modern structure, which helps birds fly.
Dromaeosaurs, velociraptors and Tyrannosaurus rex all belong to the group of birdlike meat-eating dinosaurs called theropods. Mark Norell of the American Museum of Natural History is the American leader of the scientific team in China. He believes we should now rethink the lizardlike way that theropods have been pictured in books and paintings. "When this thing was alive, it looked like a Persian cat with feathers instead of hair," he says. "There’s a huge amount of evidence that all these things were feathered, at least when they were young. Even baby tyrannosaurs probably looked like this one."