Feathered Dinosaur’s Fossil Reported Found

Paleontologists working in China have unearthed the first fossil of a dinosaur that appears to have had full-fledged feathers--a finding they say settles once and for all the debate over whether dinosaurs and birds are related. The team from the American Museum of Natural History in New York City said the 3-foot fossil also reinforces the idea that at least some dinosaurs were warm-blooded creatures that needed feathers for insulation.

The specimen, reported in the March 7 edition of Nature, is believed to be about 128 million years old. It is a small, fleet-footed theropod, a two-legged carnivore that could not fly and belongs to the same family as the larger and more fearsome Tyrannosaurus rex. The researchers said the dinosaur appears to have had mature feathers identical to those of modern birds, including long, showy plumage on its tail and hind legs.

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From Times Staff and Wire Reports