Ancestor Confusion?
A fossil find in China reported by the Chinese Academy of Sciences and the Chinese Academy of Geological Sciences adds a new twist to scientists' understanding of dinosaurs. Scientists discovered a 28 inch fossil of a young dinosaur in a rock slab in Liaoning Province in China. Tianyulong confuciusi lived about 125 million years ago during the Early Cretaceous period. The fossil has long filamentous structures that some scientists speculate may be progenitors to avian feathers or "dino-fuzz".
Scientists long ago designated two orders of dinosaurs, Ornithischia("bird-hipped) and Saurischia(lizard-hipped), based on the confusing 19th century classifications of differences in the two order's pelvic structures. Modern day birds actually descended from the Saurischia dinosaurs, which includes Tyrannosaurus rex and Archeopteryx, and scientists discovered protofeathers in the order Saurischia about ten years ago. At that time scientists were surprised to learn that dinosaurs, as well as birds, had feather-like structures. Now with the Ornithischia find, scientists wonder whether both orders evolved feathers separately, or whether all dinosaurs, even the most primitive ones, had feathers.
But that question won't be answered quite yet, since scientists don't know whether the filament structures in Tianyulong originated in the epidermal or dermal layer. If they originated in the epidermis then they could be protofeathers with implications for behavior, flight and physiology, according to Ohio University professor Lawrence M. Witmer, whereas if they originated in the dermis they would be structural and interesting, but without the same implications for evolution.
In the meantime, artist Li-da Xing has rendered Tianyulong confuciusi with what looks like a decorative boa pasted to its back.
