A therizinosauroid dinosaur with integumentary structures from China

Xing Xu (), Zhi-lu Tang and Xiao-lin Wang
Additional contact information
Xing Xu: Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology, Academia Sinica
Zhi-lu Tang: Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology, Academia Sinica
Xiao-lin Wang: Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology, Academia Sinica

Nature, 1999, vol. 399, issue 6734, 350-354

Abstract: Abstract Therizinosauroidea (‘segnosaurs’) are little-known group of Asian dinosaurs with an unusual combination of features that, until recently, obscured their evolutionary relationships. Suggested affinities include Ornithischia1, Sauropodomorpha2,3, Theropoda4,5,6,7,8,9,10,11 and Saurischia sedis mutabilis12. Here we describe a new therizinosauroid from the Yixian Formation (Early Cretaceous, Liaoning, China)13. This new taxon provides fresh evidence that therizinosauroids are nested within the coelurosaurian theropods8,9,10,11. Our analysis suggests that several specialized therizinosauroid characters, such as the Sauropodomorpha-like tetradactyl pes1,2, evolved independently within this group. Most interestingly, this new dinosaur has integumentary filaments as in Sinosauropteryx14,15. This indicates that such feather-like structures may have a broad distribution among non-avian theropods, and supports the hypothesis that the filamentous integumentary structures may be homologous to the feathers of birds14,15.

Date: 1999
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.nature.com/articles/20670 Abstract (text/html)
Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:nat:nature:v:399:y:1999:i:6734:d:10.1038_20670

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
https://www.nature.com/

DOI: 10.1038/20670

Access Statistics for this article

Nature is currently edited by Magdalena Skipper

More articles in Nature from Nature
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().