THE NATURAL HISTORY MUSEUM
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Birds of a Feather?
China's mysterious 'feathered dinosaurs' fly into Europe
Fossilized "proto-birds" captured in sediment laid down at the bottom
of an ancient lake were first uncovered by local farmers in Liaoning
Province, China, in 1995. Dubbed Confuciusornis
by scientists, they lacked the long bony tails and toothed jaws familiar
in other theropod dinosaurs like Velociraptor and Tyrannosaurus
rex. What they did have were "wings", even though sporting
distinct fingers ending in claws. A year later, this quarry in Liaoning
yielded a new small theropod dinosaur, a voracious, bipedal hunter,
later named Sinosauropteryx. In 1997,
remains of two other dino-birds, Caudipteryx
and the Protarcheopteryx, were uncovered,
but the best was yet to come. When the 'Fuzzy Raptor'
was discovered in 2000 its perfectly preserved downy body feathers
conclusively resolved the long-standing mystery of the evolutionary
link between dinosaurs and birds.
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