Two feathered dinosaurs from northeastern China

Ji, Qiang; Currie, Philip J.; Norell, Mark A.; Shu'an, JI

doi:10.1038/31635

Cited by 501 publications

(160 citation statements)

References 15 publications

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“…1a) for comparison are also presumably melanosomes. Feathers in dinosaurs may also preserve melanosomes, although they have yet to be investigated; colour banding has been reported in feathers of the Cretaceous theropod dinosaur Caudipteryx zoui (Ji et al 1998).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The colour of fossil feathers

et al. 2008

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Feathers are complex integumentary appendages of birds and some other theropod dinosaurs. They are frequently coloured and function in camouflage and display. Previous investigations have concluded that fossil feathers are preserved as carbonized traces composed of feather-degrading bacteria. Here, an investigation of a colour-banded feather from the Lower Cretaceous Crato Formation of Brazil revealed that the dark bands are preserved as elongate, oblate carbonaceous bodies 1–2 μm long, whereas the light bands retain only relief traces on the rock matrix. Energy dispersive X-ray analysis showed that the dark bands preserve a substantial amount of carbon, whereas the light bands show no carbon residue. Comparison of these oblate fossil bodies with the structure of black feathers from a living bird indicates that they are the eumelanin-containing melanosomes. We conclude that most fossil feathers are preserved as melanosomes, and that the distribution of these structures in fossil feathers can preserve the colour pattern in the original feather. The discovery of preserved melanosomes opens up the possibility of interpreting the colour of extinct birds and other dinosaurs.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The colour of fossil feathers

et al. 2008

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“…Yet larger and presumably flight-incapable adult theropods have been discovered with feathered forelimbs (e.g. Caudipteryx [36,37]; Velociraptor [38]) that perhaps generated useful aerodynamic forces only for the diminutive juveniles. Recently, Xu et al [39] reported a dinosaur, Similicaudipteryx, that appears to exhibit changing feather morphology with age.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

When hatchlings outperform adults: locomotor development in Australian brush turkeys (Alectura lathami, Galliformes)

Dial

Jackson

2010

Proc. R. Soc. B.

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Within Galliformes, megapods (brush turkey, malleefowl, scrubfowl) exhibit unique forms of parental care and growth. Hatchlings receive no post-hatching parental care and exhibit the most exaggerated precocial development of all extant birds, hatching with fully developed, flight-capable forelimbs. Rather than flying up to safety, young birds preferentially employ wing-assisted incline running. Newly hatched Australian brush turkeys (Alectura lathami) are extraordinarily proficient at negotiating all textured inclined surfaces and can flap-walk up inclines exceeding the vertical. Yet, as brush turkeys grow, their forelimb-dependent locomotor performance declines. In an attempt to elucidate how hatchlings perform so well, we analysed hindlimb forces and forelimb kinematics. We measured ground reaction forces (GRFs) for animals spanning the entire growth range (110 -2000 g) as they ascended a variably positioned inclined ramp that housed a forceplate. These data are compared with a similar dataset for a chukar partridge (Alectoris chukar) that exhibit a growth strategy typical of most other Galliformes and that demonstrate improved incline performance with increasing age. The brush turkeys' ontogenetic decline in incline running performance is accompanied by loss of traction at steep angles, reduced GRFs and increased wing-loading. We hypothesize that Australian brush turkeys, in contrast to other Galliformes, develop from forelimb-dominated young that exploit a variable terrain (e.g. mound nests, boulders, embankments, cliffs, bushes and trees) into hindlimb-dominated adults dependent on size and running speed to avoid predation.

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“…omnivorous) (see electronic supplementary material for dietary terminology). Specifically, the discovery of diminutive conical teeth, keratinous rhamphotheca (Norell et al 2001) and gastric mill (Kobayashi et al 1999) has been proposed as evidence for herbivory in ornithomimosaurs; the 'glirodont' dentition of Incisivosaurus (Xu et al 2002a) and Protarchaeopteryx ( Ji & Ji 1997) and the gastric mill of Caudipteryx (Ji et al 1998) are espoused as evidence for herbivory in oviraptorosaurs; and the widely spaced, coarse dental serrations of some derived troodontids are more congruent with the dentition of extant herbivorous squamates such as iguanids than of obligate carnivores (Holtz et al 1998). Widespread speculation of herbivory among coelurosaurian dinosaurs notwithstanding, the utility of morphological features alleged to correlate with diet in coelurosaurian theropods has not been tested analytically, nor have reconstructions of dietary evolution been subjected to empirical scrutiny within a character-comprehensive, species-level phylogenetic framework.…”

Section: Palaeobiological Implicationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

A new North American therizinosaurid and the role of herbivory in ‘predatory’ dinosaur evolution

et al. 2009

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Historically, ecomorphological inferences regarding theropod (i.e. 'predatory') dinosaurs were guided by an assumption that they were singularly hypercarnivorous. A recent plethora of maniraptoran discoveries has produced evidence challenging this notion. Here, we report on a new species of maniraptoran theropod, Nothronychus graffami sp. nov. Relative completeness of this specimen permits a phylogenetic reassessment of Therizinosauria-the theropod clade exhibiting the most substantial anatomical evidence of herbivory. In the most comprehensive phylogenetic study of the clade conducted to date, we recover Therizinosauria as the basalmost maniraptoran lineage. Using concentrated changes tests, we present evidence for correlated character evolution among herbivorous and hypercarnivorous taxa and propose ecomorphological indicators for future interpretations of diet among maniraptoran clades. Maximum parsimony optimizations of character evolution within our study indicate an ancestral origin for dietary plasticity and facultative herbivory (omnivory) within the clade. These findings suggest that hypercarnivory in paravian dinosaurs is a secondarily derived dietary specialization and provide a potential mechanism for the invasion of novel morpho-and ecospace early in coelurosaurian evolution-the loss of obligate carnivory and origin of dietary opportunism.

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Two feathered dinosaurs from northeastern China

Cited by 501 publications

References 15 publications

The colour of fossil feathers

The colour of fossil feathers

When hatchlings outperform adults: locomotor development in Australian brush turkeys (Alectura lathami, Galliformes)

A new North American therizinosaurid and the role of herbivory in ‘predatory’ dinosaur evolution

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