Fossilized skin reveals coevolution with feathers and metabolism in feathered dinosaurs and early birds

Maria E. McNamara (), Fucheng Zhang (), Stuart L. Kearns, Patrick J. Orr, André Toulouse, Tara Foley, David W. E. Hone, Chris S. Rogers, Michael J. Benton, Diane Johnson, Xing Xu () and Zhonghe Zhou
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Maria E. McNamara: University College Cork
Fucheng Zhang: Linyi University
Stuart L. Kearns: University of Bristol
Patrick J. Orr: University College Dublin
André Toulouse: University College Cork
Tara Foley: University College Cork
David W. E. Hone: Queen Mary University of London
Chris S. Rogers: University College Cork
Michael J. Benton: University of Bristol
Diane Johnson: The Open University
Xing Xu: Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology
Zhonghe Zhou: Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology

Nature Communications, 2018, vol. 9, issue 1, 1-7

Abstract: Abstract Feathers are remarkable evolutionary innovations that are associated with complex adaptations of the skin in modern birds. Fossilised feathers in non-avian dinosaurs and basal birds provide insights into feather evolution, but how associated integumentary adaptations evolved is unclear. Here we report the discovery of fossil skin, preserved with remarkable nanoscale fidelity, in three non-avian maniraptoran dinosaurs and a basal bird from the Cretaceous Jehol biota (China). The skin comprises patches of desquamating epidermal corneocytes that preserve a cytoskeletal array of helically coiled α-keratin tonofibrils. This structure confirms that basal birds and non-avian dinosaurs shed small epidermal flakes as in modern mammals and birds, but structural differences imply that these Cretaceous taxa had lower body heat production than modern birds. Feathered epidermis acquired many, but not all, anatomically modern attributes close to the base of the Maniraptora by the Middle Jurassic.

Date: 2018
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DOI: 10.1038/s41467-018-04443-x

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