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Dinosaurs

Fuzzy origins for feathers

Nature volume 458, pages 294–295 (2009)Cite this article

Cretaceous fossil deposits in China are famous for their feathered dinosaurs. But the surprising discovery of a herbivorous dinosaur with a filamentous coat raises fresh questions about the evolution of feathers.

Liaoning Province in northeastern China is renowned for the fossils that document, in often vivid detail, virtually the entire biota that lived over a period of several million years during the Early Cretaceous (about 125 million years ago)1. Although exquisite fossils of diverse vertebrates, invertebrates and plants have been recovered, it's the spectacular feathered dinosaurs that have received most attention2,3,4 and caused much controversy5,6. On page 333 of this issue, Zheng and colleagues7 present the discovery of a small dinosaur, Tianyulong confuciusi, from the Yixian Formation of Liaoning, that promises to send the debate on dinosaur feathers in a totally new direction — and a confusing direction, at that.

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Figure 1: Dinosaur relationships and skin characteristics.

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  1. Lawrence M. Witmer is in the Department of Biomedical Sciences, Ohio University College of Osteopathic Medicine, Athens, Ohio 45701, USA. witmerl@ohio.edu,

    Lawrence M. Witmer

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Witmer, L. Fuzzy origins for feathers. Nature 458, 294–295 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1038/458293a

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