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Reduced plumage and flight ability of a new Jurassic paravian theropod from China
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Reduced plumage and flight ability of a new Jurassic paravian theropod from China
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Journal Article
Reduced plumage and flight ability of a new Jurassic paravian theropod from China
2013
Overview
Feathered dinosaurs from the Middle-Late Jurassic of north-eastern China have recently been described. Here, a new paravian dinosaur, characterized by less extensive feathers on its limbs and tail, shows that the plumage of theropods was already diversified and adapted to different ecological niches by the Late Jurassic.
Feathered theropods were diverse in the Early Cretaceous Jehol Group of western Liaoning Province, China. Recently, anatomically distinct feathered taxa have been discovered in the older Middle-Late Jurassic Tiaojishan Formation in the same region. Phylogenetic hypotheses including these specimens have challenged the pivotal position of
Archaeopteryx
in bird phylogeny. Here we report a basal troodontid from the Tiaojishan Formation that resembles
Anchiornis
, also from Jianchang County (regarded as sister-taxa). The feathers of
Eosinopteryx
are less extensive on the limbs and tail than
Anchiornis
and other deinonychosaurians. With reduced plumage and short uncurved pedal claws,
Eosinopteryx
would have been able to run unimpeded (with large foot remiges cursorial locomotion was likely problematic for
Anchiornis
).
Eosinopteryx
increases the known diversity of small-bodied dinosaurs in the Jurassic, shows that taxa with similar body plans could occupy different niches in the same ecosystem and suggests a more complex picture for the origin of flight.
Publisher
Nature Publishing Group UK,Nature Publishing Group
