Latest Feathered dinosaurs Stories
April Flowers for redOrbit.com - Your Universe Online The Microraptor was a small flying dinosaur known to prey on birds and tree-dwelling mammals. New research led by a team of researchers at the University of Alberta reveals that the Microraptor was a capable aquatic hunter as well and was able to swoop down and pluck fish out of the water. Scott Persons, a paleontology graduate student at the University of Alberta, says that fossilized remains in China provided evidence of the...
redOrbit Staff & Wire Reports - Your Universe Online Researchers have found new evidence that dinosaurs were excellent swimmers, according to a study published in Monday’s edition of Chinese Science Bulletin, an academic journal co-sponsored by the Chinese Academy of Sciences and the National Natural Science Foundation of China. In fact, an international team of experts, which included University of Alberta graduate student Scott Persons, located what is being called “strongest...
Lawrence LeBlond for redOrbit.com - Your Universe Online When you inspect the legs of most birds you will find everything from the knee down is scaly rather than feathery. There is an exception to this rule however. Some birds of prey, such as eagles, have more feathering below the knee extending down to the feet. As for those with scaly legs, it is a remnant of their ancestry, when birds evolved from small two-legged dinosaurs millions of years ago. For the most part, experts...
Alan McStravick for redOrbit.com - Your Universe Online This week University of Alberta researchers examining the fossilized remains of dinosaur tail bones made what appears to be a startling discovery. Our modern day birds like the turkey and the peacock, which often use their dazzling plumage to attract a mate, may be channeling their long-departed ancestors: the feathered dinosaurs. This discovery was not made in a single find, however. Scott Persons, a paleontologist at the...
Lawrence LeBlond for redOrbit.com - Your Universe Online Analysis of two dinosaur fossil specimens have revealed new information about hunting and feeding behaviors of a wolf-like dinosaur, according to a report published in the latest issue of PLoS ONE. Researchers from University of Alberta at Edmonton found evidence that a feathered dinosaur known as Sinocalliopteryx was able to capture and consume small flying dinosaurs. Sinocalliopteryx, itself a flightless dinosaur, stood about...
Brett Smith for redOrbit.com - Your Universe Online One of the most complete dinosaur fossils ever discovered suggests that feathered dinosaurs were more prevalent than previously thought and could have been the norm, not the exception. The 150 million-year-old fossil found in northern Bavaria shows that the dinosaur had down-like feathers over parts of its front and back as well on its tail. Scientists dubbed the creature Sciurumimus albersdoerferi after "Scirius”, the scientific...
What was old is once new again, as a new study discusses the possibility of advanced, cunning, and intelligent dinosaur-like creatures living on other planets in our universe. To add to the frightening image, the study simply concludes with the thought, "We would be better off not meeting them.” This research appears in the Journal of the American Chemical Society. Scientist Ronald Breslow, Ph. D., author of the report, discusses an old and puzzling mystery of why the core and...
An Argentine-Swedish research team has reported a 70 million years old pocket of fossilized bones and unique eggs of an enigmatic birdlike dinosaur in Patagonia. What makes the discovery unique are the two eggs preserved near articulated bones of its hindlimb. This is the first time the eggs are found in a close proximity to skeletal remains of an alvarezsaurid dinosaur, says Dr. Martin Kundrát, dinosaur expert from the group of Professor Per Erik Ahlberg at Uppsala University. The...
A new species of giant, feathered dinosaur discovered in northeastern China is the largest known feathered animal –- living or extinct -- ever to have existed, scientists reported on Wednesday. Xing Xu and from the Chinese Academy of Sciences in Beijing and colleagues discovered three nearly-complete skeletons of the dinosaur, named Yutyrannus huali, meaning "beautiful feathered tyrant", in beds of sediment in Liaoning province. The meat-eating creatures, known as Tyrannosauroids, were...
A four-winged, feathered dinosaur that was the size of a pigeon and lived approximately 130 million years ago had black feathers with an iridescent sheen, a team of US and Chinese researchers has revealed. In their study, scientists from the Beijing Museum of Natural History, Peking University, the University of Texas at Austin, the University of Akron, and the American Museum of Natural History (AMNH) analyzed a specimen of the Microraptor, a non-avian dinosaur that in 2003 became the...
Latest Feathered dinosaurs Reference Libraries
Sinosauropteryx, meaning “Chinese reptilian wing,” is a genus of theropod dinosaur from the Late Jurassic to the Early Cretaceous Period 135 to 121 million years ago. It was discovered in 1996 by two Chinese farmers in the dry countryside near Liaoning Province, China. The same area has also produced later on other bird-like dinosaur fossils including Caudipteryx and Protarchaeopteryx. Three complete skeletons of Sinosauropteryx have been found, including few samples of protofeathers,...
Microraptor, meaning “small thief,” is a genus of dromaeosaurid dinosaur from the Early Cretaceous Period (120 million years ago). This small, four-winged animal was first discovered in the Jiufotang Formation in Liaoning, China, with more than two dozen specimens unearthed. There are two known species of Microraptor. The type species, M. zhaoianus, has been hotly debated for years. It was initially placed in the genus Archaeoraptor before a more accurate description placed it in the...
Sinornithosaurus, meaning “Chinese bird-lizard,” is a genus of feathered dromaeosaurid dinosaur from the early Aptian age of the Early Cretaceous Period (120 - 125 million years ago). It lived in what is now China and was the fifth non-avian feathered dinosaur discovered by 1999. It was discovered in the Jianshangou beds of the Yixian Formation, from the Sihetun locality of western Liaoning. Xu Xing, Wang Xiaolin and Wu Xiaochun, of the Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology, Beijing are...
Sinocalliopteryx, meaning "Chinese beautiful feather," is a genus of compsognathid dinosaur from the Early Cretaceous Period (124.6 million years ago) from China. It was recovered from the Jianshangou beds of the Yixian Formation. The type species, S. gigas, meaning "giant," was derived from the dinosaur's large size for a compsognathid. It is also unique from other compsognathids, by its relatively long hands in relation to its arms, which were also longer overall than in most...
Tianyulong, meaning "Tianyu dragon," is a genus of heterodontosaurid ornithischian dinosaur from the Late Jurassic Period (155 million years ago). It's fossils were recovered from the Tiaojishan Formation in Jianchang County, Western Liaoning Province, China. The type and only species is T. confuciusi. It is named for the Shandong Tianyu Museum of Nature, where the fossils are housed. Tianyulong is known from an incomplete skeleton preserving a partial skull and mandible (jaw), partial...
