ABOVE: Reconstruction of one of the pterosaur fossils
YUAN ZHANG/NATURE ECOLOGY & EVOLUTION
Scientists have announced the discovery of feathers in pterosaurs today (December 17) in Nature Ecology & Evolution. If confirmed, this report pushes the origin of feathers back 80 million years, into the Triassic.
“Our interpretation is that these bristle-type structures are the same as the feathers on birds and dinosaurs,” says palaeontologist Mike Benton at the University of Bristol in the UK. “This shifts the origin of feathers from 160 million years ago to 240 million years ago.”
The new research describes four kinds of cover on two pterosaur fossils dug up in China. One kind is a fuzzy, fur-like insulation that coated their heads, torsos, limbs, and tails. On parts of the heads and wings, the authors describe three types of curved, thread-like fibers that resemble modern feathers found in birds. “In a way it is not ...
