A bizarre Jurassic maniraptoran from China with elongate ribbon-like feathers
Correspondence: (Login to view email address)
- Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology, Chinese Academy of Sciences
PDF (33 KB)
- Document Type:
- Manuscript
- Date:
- Received 24 September 2008 12:52 UTC; Posted 24 September 2008
- Subjects:
- Developmental Biology, Ecology, Earth & Environment
- Abstract:
Recent coelurosaurian discoveries have greatly enriched our knowledge of the dinosaur-bird transition, but all reported taxa close to this transition are from relatively well-known coelurosaurian groups1-3. Here we report a new basal avialan, Epidexipteryx hui gen. et sp. nov., from the Middle-Late Jurassic of Inner Mongolia, China. This new species is characterized by an unexpected combination of characters seen in several different theropod groups, particularly the Oviraptorosauria. Phylogenetic analysis shows it to be the sister taxon to Epidendrosaurus4,5, forming a new clade at the base of Avialae6. Epidexipteryx also possesses two pairs of elongate ribbon-like tail feathers (ETFs), and its limbs lack contour feathers for flight. This finding shows that a member of the avialan lineage experimented with integumentary ornamentation as early as the Middle-Late Jurassic, and provides further evidence relating to this important aspect of the transition from non-avian theropods to birds.
Discussion
- Votes:
-
4 votes
- Comments:
-
0 comments
- (Login to share with a colleague)
Additional information
- License:
- This document is licensed to the public under the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License
- How to cite this document:
-
Zhang, Fucheng, Zhou, Zhonghe, Xu, Xing, Wang, Xiaolin, and Sullivan, Corwin. A bizarre Jurassic maniraptoran from China with elongate ribbon-like feathers. Available from Nature Precedings <http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/npre.2008.2326.1> (2008)
- Version info:
-
Other versions of this document in Nature Precedings
None.
Other versions of this document elsewhere on the web
None known.
