nav[aria-label="Primary Navigation"] { padding: 0; & ul { list-style: none; width: 100%; display: flex; flex-direction: row; justify-content: start; align-items: start; gap: 30px; padding: 0; & li { margin: 0; } & ul li { list-style: none; } } }

Child Item

The Feathered Dinosaur and Mesozoic Bird Thread

Adam Khor

A new study suggests its design made it more maneuverable than two-winged creatures:

http://blogs.scientificamerican.com/observations/2012/10/23/reanalysis-of-four-winged-dinosaur-may-illuminate-evolution-of-bird-flight/

Find more posts tagged with

flight

europe

gui

birds

jurassic

germany

feathers

raptor

microraptor

wings

archaeopteryx

lithographica

gliding

dromaeosaur

glider

nicholas longrich

kevin padian

Quick Links

Comments

Adam Khor

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-018-22412-8

Adam Khor

Archaeopteryx in the ancient Solnhofen archipielago may have been the equivalent of finches in the Galapagos, diversifying into several niches.
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2018/01/180126085440.htm

Adam Khor

https://news.nationalgeographic.com/2018/02/dinosaurs-birds-trapped-amber-fossils-paleontology-science/?utm_source=Facebook&utm_medium=Social&utm_content=link_fb20180202news-birdinamber&utm_campaign=Content&sf181122343=1
02-bird-trapped-amber-photo.ngsversion.1517592605971.adapt.768.1.jpg

02-bird-trapped-amber-photo.ngsversion.1517592605971.adapt.768.1.jpg

Galvasean

Now when people ask, "What colour were dinosaurs?", we can respond with great confidence, "ALL OF THEM!!!"

Adam Khor

Lived about 10 million years before Archaeopteryx.
https://news.nationalgeographic.com/2018/01/new-dinosaur-rainbow-feathers-china-caihong-paleontology-science/
02-new-fossil-rainbow-dinosaur-caihong-juji.adapt.768.1.jpg

02-new-fossil-rainbow-dinosaur-caihong-juji.adapt.768.1.jpg

Rubecula

modern science is finding a fair amount of soft tissue of late. I am wondering how far back we can go with this?

Adam Khor

https://www.livescience.com/61405-dinosaur-age-birds-saw-in-color.html
aHR0cDovL3d3dy5saXZlc2NpZW5jZS5jb20vaW1hZ2VzL2kvMDAwLzA5Ny83MjEvb3JpZ2luYWwvYmlyZC1leWUtZm9zc2lsLTAyLmpwZw==

aHR0cDovL3d3dy5saXZlc2NpZW5jZS5jb20vaW1hZ2VzL2kvMDAwLzA5Ny83MjEvb3JpZ2luYWwvYmlyZC1leWUtZm9zc2lsLTAyLmpwZw==

Adam Khor

http://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371%2Fjournal.pone.0167284
The wing shape is particularly intriguing:

Adam Khor

There's a really cool reconstruction of it now:
06_bird_in_amber.adapt.768.1.jpg

You can clearly see the diminutive teeth and the proto-feather covering of the body, much like non-avian dinosaurs, yet it already had full flight feathers. It was evidently able to fly shortly before birth. It's also been nicknamed "Belone" (meaning skylark) by the researchers although it doesn´t seem to be the official name yet.

John_Rambo

Great spot, thanks Adam. Soon we'll all have one!

Capt'n Midnight

Time to fire up the cloning machines

Wibbs

Thats incredible! :eek:

Adam Khor

https://www.paleowire.com/just-out-a-mid-cretaceous-enantiornithine-aves-hatchling-preserved-in-burmese-amber-with-unusual-plumage-gondwana-research/
1-s2.0-S1342937X17300527-gr1.jpg?ssl=1

Adam Khor

Described as possibly looking like a cross between a large seagull and a cormorant- but with teeth. Still, remains are fragmentary.
http://phys.org/news/2016-12-prehistoric-bird-species.html

Adam Khor

http://www.eartharchives.org/articles/paleontologists-find-fossil-bird-with-iridescent-feathers/

Adam Khor

Apparently this Hesperornis was almost eaten by a polycotylid plesiosaur, yet escaped to reach adulthood:

http://www.eartharchives.org/articles/bird-s-escape-from-marine-predator-recorded-in-fossil/

Adam Khor

I hadn´t read about it before, but I do think I had seen a series of blog posts (didn´t have time to actually read them) here and there about modern day bird patagia, and I don´t think it's a coincidence. I suspect a few people knew about the discovery already but kept the details secret until now.

StaticAge11

And the award for most eye-catching / awesome thread title goes to...

Is this the first time the discovery has been mentioned or written about? The article says that the actual discovery was a few years back

Manach

Da da da da da da da da da da da da da Batmandino

Adam Khor

This is just so awesome, I can´t...!

http://phenomena.nationalgeographic.com/2015/04/29/chinese-dinosaur-had-bat-like-wings-and-feathers/

Adam Khor

Isolated feathers were indeed found before the skeletons, hence the name (which was applied to the first feather found rather than a complete animal), but I don´t think there were expectations for a feathered dinosaur. Dinosaurs were plainly considered reptiles back then, even if unusual ones, and the only animals known to have feathers at the time were birds, so I'm sure they were expecting to find an ancient bird, not a dinosaur.

Of course, when they compared the Archaeopteryx skeletons to Compsognathus, they did notice the similarities, but even so I don´t remember reading anything about anyone expecting feathers in Compsognathus... (mind you, this may be because everything I've read about the discovery of Archie comes from two books only).

Also, lots of flightless birds come from tropical islands, you have the dodo, the cassowary, the recent moa-nalo and mole-ducks from Hawaii, Xenicibis from Cuba, Ornimegalonyx also from Cuba, a flightless caracara in Jamaica, etc.

Manach

Very true. However, AFAIR, there were samples of feathers (of differing types(?)) found in the Solhofen limestone. So there would have been an expectation that there would be a feathered dinosaur present. As well, there were other evolutionary theories at the time (ie Richard Owen pushing a non-Darwinian one), hence Arch. would have been minutely scrutinised to prove/disprove the various contested ideas. Finally, feathers are mostly used in flight (given the evolutionary cost to develop them) - so while there numerous examples today of flightless birds today but these are mostly not found in the tropics that Arch. would have dwelt in.

Adam Khor

Manach wrote: »

Before losing the book on a bus (no comment), I was reading 'Bones of Contention', on the history of the Arch. I seem to remember none of the experts at the time cast doubt on its bird like character especially in light of the avian like feathers on the samples.

Ah, but then at the time, there were no other known "dino birds" :pac:

Galvasean

Manach wrote: »

Before losing the book on a bus (no comment), I was reading 'Bones of Contention', on the history of the Arch. I seem to remember none of the experts at the time cast doubt on its bird like character especially in light of the avian like feathers on the samples.

I have that book - a very good read and perhaps more of an insight into the political impact of Archaeopteryx rather than its taxonomy.

Manach

Before losing the book on a bus (no comment), I was reading 'Bones of Contention', on the history of the Arch. I seem to remember none of the experts at the time cast doubt on its bird like character especially in light of the avian like feathers on the samples.

Galvasean

I guess we won't know until we discover more specimens, particularly its ancestors.

and as an aside, what has happened to the Scientific American website? It has become advert city!

Adam Khor

http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=did-iconic-archaeopteryx-lose-its-ability-to-fly

images?q=tbn:ANd9GcTL3gdVOylbEXLTBYrSR79vyMOWrJ69PXFLph11Wo0RTkugR38OfA

Galvasean

Oooh it's got proto-wingy things on its legs! Seemed to be all the rage back in the day...

Adam Khor

http://www.latimes.com/news/science/sciencenow/la-sci-sn-archeopteryx-bird-dinosaur-aurornis-xui-20130529,0,7343852.story

599

More pics and info here:

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2332823/New-flying-dinosaur-fossils-China-shed-new-light-birds-evolved.html

Galvasean

If only Hitchcock knew....