Best evidence yet that dinosaurs used feathers for courtship
A
University of Alberta researcher's examination of fossilized dinosaur tail
bones has led to a breakthrough finding: some feathered dinosaurs used tail
plumage to attract mates, much like modern-day peacocks and turkeys. U of A
Paleontology researcher Scott Persons followed a chain of fossil evidence that
started with a peculiar fusing together of vertebrae at the tip of the tail of
four different species of dinosaurs, some separated in time and evolution by 45
million years.
Persons
says the final vertebrae in the tails of a group of dinosaurs called oviraptors
were fused together forming a ridged, blade-like structure. "The structure
is called a pygostyle" says Persons. "Among modern animals only birds
have them."
Researchers say fossils of Similicaudiptery, an
early oviraptor, reveals feathers radiating from the fused bones at the tail
tip. Similicaudiptery was not known to be a flying dinosaur and
Persons contends its tail feathers evolved as a means of waving its feathered
tail fans.
No direct fossil evidence of feathers has been found with the
fossils of the oviraptors that followed Similicaudiptery, but
Persons says there is still strong evidence they had a feathered tail.
Persons reasons that because the later oviraptor had the same
tail structure as the feathered Similicaudipteryx, the
tails of later oviraptors' still served the same purpose, waving feathered tail
fans.
Persons
says the hypothesis of oviraptor tail waving is supported by both the bone and
muscle structure of the tail.
Persons reasons that because the later oviraptor had the same
tail structure as the feathered Similicaudipteryx, the
tails of later oviraptors' still served the same purpose, waving feathered tail
fans.
Persons
says the hypothesis of oviraptor tail waving is supported by both the bone and
muscle structure of the tail.
Individual
vertebrae at the base of an oviraptor's tail were short and numerous,
indicating great flexibility. Based on dissections of modern reptile and bird
tails, Persons reconstruction of the dinosaur's tail muscles revealed
oviraptors had what it took to really shake their tail feathers.
Large
muscles extended far down the tail and had a sufficient number of broad
connection points to the vertebrae to propel oviraptor's tail feathers
vigorously from side to side and up and down.
Oviraptors
were two-legged dinosaurs that had already gone through major diversifications
from the iconic, meat eating dinosaur family. Oviraptors were plant eaters that
roamed parts of China, Mongolia, and Alberta during the Cretaceous period, the
final age of the dinosaur.
"By
this time a variety of dinosaurs used feathers for flight and insulation from
the cold, "said Persons. "This shows that by the Late Cretaceous
dinosaurs were doing everything with feathers that modern birds do now,"
said Persons.
In
addition to feathered-tail waving, oviraptors also had prominent bone crests on
their head, which Persons says the dinosaur also may have used in mating
displays.
"Between
the crested head and feathered-tail shaking, oviraptors had a propensity for
visual exhibitionism," said Persons.
Source: University of Alberta
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Posted by Unknown
on Sunday, January 13, 2013.
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