“When the wind blows, they reveal themselves.” “You don’t need to do too much to dig up fossils in China,” local palaeontologist Wang Xiaoli told a reporter from The New York Times. Many museums have single specimens of dinosaur species in their collections Shandong often has several hundred. Species described from the collection here include Tianyuraptor, which resembles Velociraptor Tianyulong, one of the first known feathered herbivorous dinosaurs and the four-winged flying dinosaurs Anchiornis and Xiaotingia. Arranged in 28 halls in three nondescript-looking buildings, these spectacular displays merely hint at the treasures behind closed doors, where a backlog of new feathered dinosaur finds is stacked up waiting to be studied and named. Five hundred kilometres south of Beijing, it’s the largest museum of its kind in the world, with fossils of more than 1,000 complete dinosaurs, 2,300 early birds and plenty of creatures that bridge the boundary. The Shandong Tianyu Museum of Nature in Pingyi is the place to go if you want to experience China’s dinosaurs in all their weird and wonderful glory. But a recent finding left them scratching their heads. Palaeontologists thought they had a good idea of the diversity of these fluffy carnivores. The new findings are detailed in this week's issue of the journal Science.Since 1996, nearly 50 new feathered dinosaur species have emerged from the fossil fields of China. (See "True-Color Dinosaur Revealed: First Full-Body Rendering.")
"This study gives us an unprecedented glimpse at what this animal looked like when it was alive," study team member Mark Norell, chair of the American Museum of Natural History's Division of Paleontology, said in a statement. The team found that Microraptor's melanosomes were narrow, elongated, and organized in a sheetlike orientation-features that produce an iridescent sheen on modern feathers. Using an electron microscope, the researchers compared tiny, pigment-containing structures called melanosomes in a Microraptor fossil to melanosomes of living birds. The findings are the earliest evidence of iridescence in any creature-bird or dinosaur, said study leader Julia Clarke, a paleontologist at the University of Texas at Austin.Ĭlarke and colleagues also suggest this iridescent coloring may have helped make Microraptor's tail feathers even more eye-catching to mates. Recent research suggests the pigeon-size Microraptor's feathers glimmered black and blue in sunlight, like feathers of modern crows or grackles. Using an electron microscope, the researchers compared tiny, pigment-containing structures called melanosomes in a Microraptor fossil to melanosomes of living birds.The team found that Microraptor's melanosomes were narrow, elongated, and organized in a sheetlike orientation-features that produce an iridescent sheen on modern feathers."This study gives us an unprecedented glimpse at what this animal looked like when it was alive," study team member Mark Norell, chair of the American Museum of Natural History's Division of Paleontology, said in a statement.(See "True-Color Dinosaur Revealed: First Full-Body Rendering.")The new findings are detailed in this week's issue of the journal Science.-Ker ThanĪccording to a new study, Microraptors-four-winged, feathered dinosaurs that lived 125 million years ago-sported Earth's earliest known iridescence, as pictured in this illustration. According to a new study, Microraptors-four-winged, feathered dinosaurs that lived 125 million years ago-sported Earth's earliest known iridescence, as pictured in this illustration.Recent research suggests the pigeon-size Microraptor's feathers glimmered black and blue in sunlight, like feathers of modern crows or grackles.The findings are the earliest evidence of iridescence in any creature-bird or dinosaur, said study leader Julia Clarke, a paleontologist at the University of Texas at Austin.Clarke and colleagues also suggest this iridescent coloring may have helped make Microraptor's tail feathers even more eye-catching to mates.
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