Editor's Summary

23 October 2008

Theropod evolution: a trick of the tail feathers

Here's another chapter in the transition from non-avian theropods to birds — the discovery of a bizarre pigeon-sized feathered dinosaur from the Mid-Late Jurassic of China. Living a little before Archaeopteryx, this creature is birdlike in many ways including the presence of four very long ribbon-like tail feathers and a short tail. But there is no sign of the flight feathers of the kind seen on the limbs of birdlike dinosaurs such as Microraptor. In today's birds, elongated tail feathers are usually ornamental, and that could be the case here. This new fossil adds yet more complexity to the early history of evolution from dinosaurs to birds.

Letter: A bizarre Jurassic maniraptoran from China with elongate ribbon-like feathers

Fucheng Zhang, Zhonghe Zhou, Xing Xu, Xiaolin Wang & Corwin Sullivan

doi:10.1038/nature07447

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