Mosaic evolution in an asymmetrically feathered troodontid dinosaur with transitional features

• Published in: Nature communications Vol. 8; no. 1; pp. 14972 - 12
• Main Authors: Xu, Xing, Currie, Philip, Pittman, Michael, Xing, Lida, Meng, Qingjin, Lü, Junchang, Hu, Dongyu, Yu, Congyu
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: London Nature Publishing Group UK 02.05.2017; Nature Publishing Group; Nature Portfolio
• Subjects: 631/181/414; Animal feathers; Animals; Asymmetry; Biological Evolution; China; Cretaceous; Dinosaurs; Dinosaurs - anatomy & histology; Dinosaurs - classification; Dinosaurs - physiology; Earth science; Evolution; Extinction, Biological; Feathers - anatomy & histology; Feathers - physiology; Flight, Animal - physiology; Fossils - anatomy & histology; Fossils - history; History, Ancient; Humanities and Social Sciences; multidisciplinary; Museums; Paleontology; Phylogeny; Science; Science (multidisciplinary); Software; Taxa; Beijing China; China

Asymmetrical feathers have been associated with flight capability but are also found in species that do not fly, and their appearance was a major event in feather evolution. Among non-avialan theropods, they are only known in microraptorine dromaeosaurids. Here we report a new troodontid, Jianianhua...