PALEONTOLOGY:  Dinosaur Fossils, in Fine Feather, Show Link to Birds

doi:10.1126/science.280.5372.2051

Account Information

Guest Alerts | Access Rights | My Account | Sign In

Research News

PALEONTOLOGY:
Dinosaur Fossils, in Fine Feather, Show Link to Birds

Ann Gibbons

Following up on controversial reports from 2 years ago, a team of Chinese, Canadian, and American paleontologists now claims that in rich fossil beds in China they have finally discovered the real thing--dinosaurs with feathers. In reports in this week's issue of Nature and the July issue of National Geographic, they describe two species of turkey-sized theropod (meat-eating) dinosaurs that have unmistakable feathers fanning out from their forearms and tails. But doubters still contend that the ancestors of birds branched off from the reptiles before dinosaurs appeared; they say the feathers only show that the new finds are flightless birds, not dinosaurs.

Read the Full Text

THIS ARTICLE HAS BEEN CITED BY OTHER ARTICLES:

Functional Microanatomy of the Feather-Bearing Integument: Implications for the Evolution of Birds and Avian Flight.: D. G. Homberger and K. N. de Silva (2000)
Integr. Comp. Biol. 40, 553-574
| Abstract » | Full Text » | PDF »