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Feathers predate flight: research
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A FOSSIL dinosaur wrapped from head to tail in feathers that has been unearthed in China will add to the debate about birds being descended from dinosaurs, the British science journal Nature reported yesterday.
The find also suggests that the evolution of feathers predates the development of flight, the report said.
Nature quoted Chinese and US scientists as saying that the specimen of Dromaeosaurs -- small predators closely related to the Velociraptor which starred in the film Jurassic Park -- provides the best evidence yet that some dinosaurs developed primitive feathers -- not for flight but probably to keep warm.
Fossils of feathered dinosaurs that promise to shed light on the origin of birds are becoming more common but, like most fossil skeletons, these dinosaurs are rarely complete, and the bones are often fragmentary and disarticulated, the report said.
In contrast, the 126- to 147-million-year-old Chinese fossil, which was unearthed last spring by farmers digging in northeastern China's Liaoning Province, is a complete skeleton preserved spread-eagled on a slab, allowing the examination of feather-like filaments over the body in unprecedented detail.
Scientists said the fossil was entombed in two slabs of fine grained rock. When the slabs were separated the farmers saw a fossil that resembles a large duck with a long tail and an oversized head.
The fine grained rock allowed minute details to be preserved showing that its head and tail were covered with downy fibres, while other parts of the body seemed to have tufts or sprays of filaments resembling primitive feathers. The arms also seemed to be adorned with branched structures similar to the barbs of modern bird feathers.
"This is the specimen we've been waiting for. It makes it indisputable that a body covering similar to feathers was present in non-avian (flightless) dinosaurs," Ji Qiang from the Chinese Academy of Geological Sciences was quoted by Nature as saying.
Dromaeosaurs, like Velociraptors, had a sickle-like claw on the middle toe, sharp teeth, and a bone structure similar to that of modern birds.(Xinhua)
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