Did Dinosaurs Have Feathers?
For thousands of years, scientists and paleontologists have been puzzled by the one species that can be defined as the most fearsome ever to tread earth: dinosaurs!
They filled the entire food chain and ecosystem when they were alive.
So, not only did they roam the earth, but they also swam in the seas and flew in the air.
Could they fly like birds?
Does that mean they had feathers?
Yes, that’s right!
Dinosaurs and Feathers
Well, recent research from China unveiled about five species of dinosaurs that did have feathers. But that is not all.
The most important finding was that it wasn’t just dinosaurs that flew that had feathers.
Even the ones that could not fly had them!
This idea comes from a 2014 study that shows that specific species of dinosaurs were found to have feathers and scales.
Mostly the meat-eating dinosaurs, theropods, were a part of this category.
But there were also those that belonged to a seemingly unrelated category, such as Kulindadromeus and Psittacosaurus.
Moreover, these discoveries were made in a completely different region.
Did All Dinosaurs Have Feathers?
The discovery that dinosaurs that could not fly or were not meat-eating had feathers raised a very interesting question: Did all dinosaurs have feathers, to begin with?
Perhaps, all dinosaurs had the same ancestors.
While that is not surprising on its own, a complementary claim is that perhaps the common ancestor had wings too!
However, as scientists dug deeper and traced the feathered dinosaurs back to their ancestors, they found the possibility of a common feathered ancestor highly unlikely.
The further back they went in the theropod tree, evidence of feathers got dimmer.
It is likely the dinosaurs developed the feathers later on in unrelated circumstances.
The key finding of this study, however, was that many dinosaurs genetically had the ability to grow feathers. This has opened up an interesting avenue as to why some dinosaurs did grow feathers and why others didn’t.
Takeaway
Many of us would have thought dinosaurs were humongous, scaly creatures.
But recent findings that some dinosaurs indeed were feathered and quite possibly evolved to current day birds tell us there is so much more for us to learn about them.
One thing is for sure, much of the world and illustrious history of dinosaurs remains to be explored.