Anchiornis huxleyiA feathery four-winged dinosaur
A fossil of a bird-like dinosaur bridges a critical gap in the transition from dinosaurs to birds, and reveals new insights into the origin evolution of feathers (PDF, 2.3MB).
A pre-Archaeopteryx troodontid theropod from China with long feathers on the metatarsus
Dongyu Hu, Lianhai Hou, Lijun Zhang & Xing Xu
Nature, Vol 461| 1 October 2009, 640-643 | doi:10.1038/nature08322
Abstract:
The early evolution of the major groups of derived non-avialan theropods is still not well understood, mainly because of their poor fossil record in the Jurassic. A well-known result of this problemis the ‘temporal paradox’ argument that is sometimes made against the theropod hypothesis of avian origins1. Here we report on an exceptionally
well-preserved small theropod specimen collected from the earliest Late Jurassic Tiaojishan Formation of western Liaoning, China2. The specimen is referable to the Troodontidae, which are among the theropods most closely related to birds. This new find refutes the ‘temporal paradox’ 1 and provides significant information on the temporal framework of theropod divergence. Furthermore, the extensive feathering of this specimen, particularly the attachment of long pennaceous feathers to the pes, sheds new light on the early evolution of feathers and demonstrates the complex distribution of skeletal and integumentary features close to the dinosaur-bird transition.
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NOTA IMPERTINENTE DESTE BLOGGER:
Esta grandiosa descoberta científica é uma ducha de água fria nos mais céticos do grandioso poder criativo do acaso mais mutações filtradas pela seleção natural ao longo de milhões de anos.
Tinha que ser um grande negócio da China. Se fosse do Paraguai...
