Here’s Discover:
A new dinosaur is ruffling a few feathers in the ongoing debate over when and why dinosaurs evolved plumage — and which dinosaurs were rocking the feathered look.
Feathers have been associated with several dinosaurs directly ancestral to birds. Additional studies have determined that some non-avian theropod dinosaurs — not directly ancestral to birds but still closely related — also had various types of plumage. Based on an older dinosaur not related to birds that was recently unearthed in Siberia, however, researchers believe many more dinosaurs — possibly all or most of them — had feathers. The newly described Siberian dinosaur, Kulindadromeus zabaikalicus, also helps paleontologists understand why feathers evolved at all.
It probably doesn’t help us understand “why feathers evolved at all” because of all the possible reasons they might have done, if this interpretation turns out to be correct.
It would be somewhat like bipedalism in humans. It is hard to choose between the advantages.
Follow UD News at Twitter!