2008-10-23 - Epidexipteryx hui: le piume per “esibizionismo” e non per volare (2)

Dopo quasi un mese dal lancio mediatico della scoperta di Epidexipteryx hui se ne torna a parlare, così aggiorniamo le notizie.

Epidexipteryx hui è un dinsoauro teropode il cui reperto fossile presenta resti di piumaggio in particolare anche su una coda dall’aspetto assai bizzarro.

L’età del reperto, l’appartenenza al gruppo dei teropodi (lo stesso dela maggior parte dei dinosauri piumati, e quello dal quale si evolveranno poi gli uccelli), e il fatto che il piumaggio dell’esemplare sembra non avere attinenza con la capacità di volare, fanno ritenere gli studiosi che il piumaggio possa essere nato con una funizone di “visual communication” (l’esempio attuale più classico è quello della coda dei pavoni).

Epidexipterix hui, from Nature

A mio modesto parere, non essendo uno specialista di dinosauri, sebbene è chiaro che le piume della coda avevano un significato “visuale”, ciò non esclude che il piumaggio in genere possa essere un carattere evolutivo legato inizialmente alla “regolazione termica”.

precedente post: Epidexipteryx hui : le piume per “esibizionismo” e non per volare

Epidexipteryx - Images courtesy Qui Ji & Xing Lida

P:S: the informal name given to this dinosaur is “Hushiyaolong” after the name of “Hu Yaoming”, a young deceased Chinese paleomammalogist. The fossil specimen will be exhibited at the Paleozoological Museum of China starting October 25 (link).

The fossil specimen of Epidexipteryx hui ("Hushiyaolong") (Xinhua photo)

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see for comments of Dr Angela Milner, associate keeper of palaeontology at the Natural History Museum, London:

New feathered dinosaur looks like déjà vu for birds, but not a …
DigitalJournal.com - 2008-10-27  – It’sa dinosaur with display feathers, but no flight feathers. It dates from Middle to Late Jurassic, and it would have been for enthusiasts only as a pet.

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Other links (updated on 2008-10-23 11:02 Italy):

New feathered dinosaur discovered BBC News - 7 ore fa By James Morgan The fossil of a “bizarre” feathered dinosaur from the era before birds evolved has been discovered in China. …

Bird-Like Dinosaur Sported Bizarre Tail Feathers FOXNews - 9 ore fa By Jeanna Bryner Epidexipteryx is the oldest theropod (two-legged meat-eating dinosaur) known to possess display feathers. Epidexipteryx is the oldest …

Tiny dinosaur ‘the peacock of its day’ Scotsman - 9 ore fa A PIGEON-SIZED feathered dinosaur with impressive tail plumage may have been the peacock of its day, scientists have discovered. …

Early dinosaur’s feathers were for show, not flight CBC.ca - 13 ore fa Epidexipteryx, a new feathered maniraptoran dinosaur from the Jurassic period of China, is a primitive, flightless member of the avialan group. …

First Dinosaur Feathers for Show, Not Flight? National Geographic - 13 ore fa One of the oldest known dinosaur relatives of birds had “bizarre” anatomy, including long, ribbon-like tail feathers that suggest plumage may have first …

Dinosaur feather mating discovery The Press Association - 14 ore fa A pigeon-sized feathered dinosaur with impressive tail plumage may have been the peacock of its day, scientists have discovered. …

Weird dino rewrites the book on birds AFP - 14 ore fa PARIS (AFP) — A tiny, egg-robbing dinosaur that lived more than 150 million years ago could help explain a key phase in the evolution of birds, …

Fancy Feathers Predated Flight in Dinosaur-Bird Hybrid Wired News - 15 ore fa By Alexis Madrigal October 22, 2008 | 12:16:03 PMCategories: Dinosaurs A part-bird, part-dinosaur described in the journal Nature this week didn’t have …

China finds fossils of small feathered dinosaur Reuters UK - 15 ore fa HONG KONG (Reuters) – Archaeologists in China have discovered fossils of a pigeon-sized feathered dinosaur which they believe to be an ancestor of birds. …

Shake a tail feather: Scientists reveal the pigeon-sized dinosaur … Daily Mail - 14 ore fa By Daily Mail Reporter Is it a bird? Is it a dino-saur? The answer to both questions is yes. This bizarre pigeon-sized creature, which roamed the planet …

Shake a tale feather: Scientists reveal the pigeon-sized dinosaur … Daily Mail - 14 ore fa By Daily Mail Reporter A strange pigeon-sized dinosaur that roamed the planet more than 150 million years ago was the oldest known relative of birds, …

Shake Your Jurassic Tail Feather Discover Magazine - 14 ore fa In recent years, dinosaurs have gotten awfully cute. They’re no longer Victorian lumps of saggy muscle. A lot of them are not even frightening. …

New bizarre feathered dinosaur discovered in China Science Centric - 15 ore fa by Stanislav P. Abadjiev | 22 October 2008 17:00 GMT — A new stage in the early history of birds is published in the most recent issue of the journal Nature …

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Other links, in german:

Chinesischer Saurier hatte bereits Federn, flog aber noch nicht WELT ONLINE - 5 ore fa Oktober 2008, 02:43 Uhr Peking – Chinesische Forscher haben in der Inneren Mongolei das Skelett einer bisher unbekannten Dinosaurier-Art ausgegraben. Das Skelett stamme von einem halbwüchsigen Tier, es handle sich dabei um den ältesten federtragenden, … Kurioser Vogelsaurier aus der Jurazeit Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung Das Geheimnis der gefiederten Echsen derStandard.at WELT ONLINE e altri 66 articoli simili » Wissenschaft aktuell Nachrichtendienst Hui: Schicke Schwanzfedern zierten neu entdeckte Übergangsform … Wissenschaft aktuell Nachrichtendienst - 16 minuti fa Das Fossil eines frühen Vogelverwandten macht das Wissen rund um den Übergang zwischen Sauriern und Vögeln noch komplexer: Fliegen konnte Epidexipteryx hui zwar vermutlich nicht, aber er hatte bereits ein schmückendes Federkleid. …

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Original scientific article:

A bizarre Jurassic maniraptoran from China with elongate ribbon-like feathers

Fucheng Zhang¹, Zhonghe Zhou¹, Xing Xu¹, Xiaolin Wang¹ & Corwin Sullivan¹

1. Laboratory of Evolutionary Systematics of Vertebrates, Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, PO Box 643, Beijing 100044, China

Correspondence to: Fucheng Zhang¹ Correspondence and requests for materials should be addressed to F.Z. (Email: zhangfucheng@ivpp.ac.cn).

Nature 455, 1105-1108 (23 October 2008) | doi:10.1038/nature07447; Received 14 June 2008; Accepted 19 September 2008

 

Abstract:

Recent coelurosaurian discoveries have greatly enriched our knowledge of the transition from dinosaurs to birds, but all reported taxa close to this transition are from relatively well known coelurosaurian groups^{1, 2, 3}. Here we report a new basal avialan, Epidexipteryx hui gen. et sp. nov., from the Middle to Late Jurassic of Inner Mongolia, China. This new species is characterized by an unexpected combination of characters seen in several different theropod groups, particularly the Oviraptorosauria. Phylogenetic analysis shows it to be the sister taxon to Epidendrosaurus ^{4, 5}, forming a new clade at the base of Avialae⁶. Epidexipteryx also possesses two pairs of elongate ribbon-like tail feathers, and its limbs lack contour feathers for flight. This finding shows that a member of the avialan lineage experimented with integumentary ornamentation as early as the Middle to Late Jurassic, and provides further evidence relating to this aspect of the transition from non-avian theropods to birds.