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Published online 23 May 2007 | Nature | doi:10.1038/news070521-6
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Bald dino casts doubt on feather theory
Fossil calls into question the purpose of the first feathers.
Feathery dinosaurs might not have been as common as experts thought, according to researchers who analysed a fossil of a creature previously thought to have feathers, and found instead that it was bald.
The discovery calls into question the theory that the first feathers evolved not for flight but for insulation, and that they made their first appearance in relatively early dinosaur lineages that later evolved into modern birds.
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