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'Fluffy¹' dinosaurs² were widespread

What did dinosaurs really look like?

The majority of dinosaurs were covered with feathers or had the potential to grow feathers. A discovery of 150 million year-old fossils in Siberia indicates that feathers were more widespread among dinosaurs than previously³ thought. The details have been published in the Journal Science.

Reporter:

Pallab Ghosh

Report

The creature was about a metre long with a short snout, long hind⁴ legs, short arms and five strong fingers. Until now, fossilised evidence of feathery dinosaurs has come from China, and from a meat-eating group called theropods. 

The latest discovery – in Russia – is from a completely separate group of plant-eating dinosaurs called ornithischians. 

The new find takes the origin of feathers millions of years further back in time than had previously been thought. And, according to the researchers, completely changed ideas about how dinosaurs evolved. 

Instead of thinking of them as dry, scary scaly⁵ creatures, a lot of species, especially when very young, actually had a fluffy, downy covering like feathers on a chick, they say. And did so when dinosaurs first emerged.