A dromaeosaurid dinosaur with a filamentous integument from the Yixian Formation of China

Xing Xu, Xiao-Lin Wang and Xiao-Chun Wu ()
Additional contact information
Xing Xu: The Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology, Academia Sinica
Xiao-Lin Wang: The Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology, Academia Sinica
Xiao-Chun Wu: The Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology, Academia Sinica

Nature, 1999, vol. 401, issue 6750, 262-266

Abstract: Abstract Dromaeosaurids, despite their notoriety, are poorly characterized meat-eating dinosaurs, and were previously known only from disarticulated or fragmentary specimens1. Many studies have denied their close relationship to birds2,3. Here we report the best represented and probably the earliest dromaeosaurid yet discovered, Sinornithosaurus millenii gen. et sp. nov., from Sihetun, the famous Mesozoic fish–dinosaur–bird locality in China4,5. Sinornithosaurus not only greatly increases our knowledge of Dromaeosauridae but also provides evidence for a filamentous integument in this group. It is remarkably similar to early birds postcranially. The shoulder girdle shows that terrestrial dromaeosaurids had attained the prerequisites for powered, flapping flight6, supporting the idea that bird flight originated from the ground up7,8. The discovery of Sinornithosaurus widens the distribution of integumentary filaments among non-avian theropods5,9,10. Phylogenetic analysis indicates that, among known theropods with integumentary filaments or feathers2,5, Dromaeosauridae is the most bird-like, and is more closely related to birds than is Troodontidae.

Date: 1999
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.nature.com/articles/45769 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:401:y:1999:i:6750:d:10.1038_45769

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

DOI: 10.1038/45769

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 ().