DISAMPING KANAN INI.............
PLEASE USE ........ "TRANSLATE MACHINE" .. GOOGLE TRANSLATE BESIDE RIGHT THIS
.................
Fosil yang
ditemukan di Siberia sarankan semua dinosaurus bisa berbulu
............contoh
tanaman- yang dimakan dinosaurus dengan bulu dan sisik yang telah ditemukan di Rusia.......... Sebelumnya
hanya dinosaurus makan daging yang dikenal mempunyai bulu, sehingga penemuan baru ini menimbulkan kemungkinan bahwa semua
dinosaurus bisa berbulu.
Fossils found in Siberia suggest all dinosaurs could have been feathered
Date:
July 30,
2014
Source:
Bristol University
Summary:
The first ever example of a plant-eating dinosaur with
feathers and scales has been discovered in Russia. Previously only flesh-eating
dinosaurs were known to have had feathers, so this new find raises the
possibility that all dinosaurs could have been feathered.
....................
The first ever example of a plant-eating dinosaur with
feathers and scales has been discovered in Russia. Previously only flesh-eating
dinosaurs were known to have had feathers, so this new find raises the
possibility that all dinosaurs could have been feathered.
The new
dinosaur, named Kulindadromeus zabaikalicus as it comes from a site called
Kulinda on the banks of the Olov River in Siberia, is described in a paper
recently published in Science.
Kulindadromeus shows epidermal scales on its tail and shins, and
short bristles on its head and back. The most astonishing discovery, however, is
that it also has complex, compound feathers associated with its arms and legs.
Birds arose
from dinosaurs over 150 million years ago so it was no surprise when dinosaurs
with feathers were found in China in 1996. But all those feathered dinosaurs
were theropods, flesh-eating dinosaurs that include the direct ancestors of
birds.
Lead author
Dr Pascal Godefroit from the Royal Belgian Institute of Natural History in
Brussels said: "I was really amazed when I saw this. We knew that some of
the plant-eating ornithischian dinosaurs had simple bristles, and we couldn't
be sure whether these were the same kinds of structures as bird and theropod
feathers. Our new find clinches it: all dinosaurs had feathers, or at least the
potential to sprout feathers."
The Kulinda
site was found in summer 2010 by Professor Dr Sofia Sinitsa from the Institute
of Natural Resources, Ecology and Cryology SB RAS in Chita, Russia. In 2013,
the Russian-Belgian team excavated many dinosaur fossils, as well as plant and
insect fossils.
The feathers
were studied by Dr Maria McNamara (University of Bristol and University
College, Cork) and Professor Michael Benton (University of Bristol), who has
also worked on the feathers of Chinese dinosaurs, and Professor Danielle
Dhouailly (Université Joseph Fourier in Grenoble, France) who is a specialist
on the development of feathers and scales in modern reptiles and birds.
Dr McNamara
said: "These feathers are really very well preserved. We can see each
filament and how they are joined together at the base, making a compound
structure of six or seven filaments, each up to 15mm long."
Professor
Dhouailly said: "Developmental experiments in modern chickens suggest that
avian scales are aborted feathers, an idea that explains why birds have scaly
legs. The astonishing discovery is that the molecular mechanisms needed for
this switch might have been so clearly related to the appearance of the first
feathers in the earliest dinosaurs."
Kulindadromeus was a small plant-eater, only about 1m long. It had
long hind legs and short arms, with five strong fingers. Its snout was short,
and its teeth show clear adaptations to plant eating. In evolutionary terms, it
sits low in the evolutionary tree of ornithischian dinosaurs. There are six
skulls and several hundred partial skeletons of this new dinosaur at the
Kulinda locality.
This
discovery suggests that feather-like structures were likely widespread in
dinosaurs, possibly even in the earliest members of the group. Feathers
probably arose during the Triassic, more than 220 million years ago, for
purposes of insulation and signalling, and were only later co-opted for flight.
Smaller dinosaurs were probably covered in feathers, mostly with colourful
patterns, and feathers may have been lost as dinosaurs grew up and became
larger.
Story
Source:
The above
story is based on materials provided by Bristol University. Note: Materials may be edited
for content and length.
Journal
Reference:
- P. Godefroit, S. M. Sinitsa, D. Dhouailly, Y. L. Bolotsky, A. V. Sizov, M. E. McNamara, M. J. Benton, P. Spagna. A Jurassic ornithischian dinosaur from Siberia with both feathers and scales. Science, 2014; 345 (6195): 451 DOI: 10.1126/science.1253351