The fossil of a pigeon-sized, flightless dinosaur has been dug up from the Daohugou formation in Inner Mongolia, and it looks like the half-feathered dinosaur was a bit of a show-off:
The Chinese fossil, named Epidexipteryx (meaning “display feather”), “is very close to the bird lineage,” says Fucheng Zhang of the Institute of Vertebrate Palaeontology and Palaeoanthropology in Beijing, China.The creature’s evolutionary relationships to other dinosaurs, its age, and some details of its anatomy remain uncertain. Epidexipteryx might have evolved from flying ancestors, Zhang says, but its age and appearance suggest “that display feathers appeared before airfoil feathers and flight ability”.
The fossil’s most striking features are four ribbon-like tail feathers stretching at least 20 centimetres – the full length is uncertain as the tips are no longer present. Parallel filaments resembling the barbs in bird feathers run along their length.
The shoulders show short fuzzy feathers, which Zhang says also covered the body. But its limbs show no trace of flight feathers.