![]() So if you can identify the shape, you can identify the colour. And that’s important, because different shapes contain different colour pigments. Some are round, others are egg-shaped, etc. These structures contain melanin, one of the main colour-producing pigments in animals. If you look at modern bird feathers under a microscope, you can see tiny blobs called melanosomes. They allow us to determine what colour dinosaurs were. There’s something else that these feathers can tell us. This is one of the most stimulating new notions about dinosaurs and a fascinating area for further investigation. Flight may actually have come about by accident when smaller winged dinosaurs began jumping between trees or leaping in the air, and suddenly found that their wings had aerodynamic properties. They appeared in species such as the ostrich-like Ornithomimosaur. These feathers were probably for display: to attract mates or scare off rivals. They lined the arms, and sometimes the legs, forming wings. They grew bigger, started to branch out and changed into feathers like those on modern birds. Many dinosaurs retained this basic fluffy coat, but in one group the strands modified. In the late 1990s, the discovery of thousands of feather- covered dinosaurs closed the argument.īut the fossils raised another question: why did feathers first develop in dinosaurs? They probably originated as simple, hair-like strands - a necessary means of keeping warm. The discovery of Deinonychus with its long arms, skinny legs, arched neck and big claws on its feet, helped to strengthen the theory that birds evolved from dinosaurs. More studies are needed to provide more clarity. Other palaeontologists, however, use the same fossils to suggest that dinosaurs were somewhere between cold-blooded reptiles and warm-blooded birds. Some results are convincing: we know from studying their bones that dinosaurs had rapid growth rates, just like modern, warm-blooded animals. Palaeontologists must rely on studying fossils. The problem is that dinosaurs can’t be observed. A few decades later opinions are still mixed. Some palaeontologists even proposed that they were warm-blooded creatures like modern birds with a constant high body temperature that they controlled internally, rather than from warming themselves by lying in the sun. Some discoveries in the 1970s, like the agile and strangely bird-like Deinonychus, proved that dinosaurs were far more dynamic and intelligent than previously thought. The boundary between dinosauromorphs and dinosaurs is becoming less and less distinct with each new discovery that’s made, but what’s becoming clear is that it took millions of years for these first dinosaurs to spread around the world, grow to huge sizes and become truly dominant. These creatures remained small and rare for millions of years until they developed into dinosaurs. Instead they evolved from a group of angular, cat-sized reptiles called dinosauromorphs. But there are still many unsolved mysteries.ĭinosaurs didn’t start out as huge monsters like Tyrannosaurus Rex. Because of this plentiful supply of new fossils, we now know more about dinosaurs than we do about many modern animals. And this pace shows no signs of slowing, as different areas continue to open up to fossil hunters and a fresh generation of scientists comes of age. New dinosaurs are appearing everywhere these days – about 50 each year. In fact what my colleagues and I did wasn’t that unusual. It is every dinosaur-obsessed child’s dearest wish to discover and name a completely new species. ![]() Then its fossil remains were found a few months ago when workmen were excavating a site in order to build a school. It seems that the creature got trapped in the mud and died. It was given the formal scientific name Tongtianlong, but we called it ‘Mud Dragon’ because its skeleton was discovered in rock that had hardened from ancient mud. It was about the size of a sheep and covered in feathers, with a sharp beak that it probably used to crack open shellfish. ![]() Living in what is now China, the species would have resembled a strange bird. I was recently part of a team of palaeontologists that discovered a new dinosaur.
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