An Early Cretaceous heterodontosaurid dinosaur with filamentous integumentary structures

Xiao-Ting Zheng, Hai-Lu You (), Xing Xu and Zhi-Ming Dong
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Xiao-Ting Zheng: Shandong Tianyu Museum of Nature, Lianhuashan Road West, Pingyi, Shandong, 273300, China
Hai-Lu You: Institute of Geology, Chinese Academy of Geological Sciences, 26 Baiwanzhuang Road, Beijing 100037, China
Xing Xu: Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, 142 Xiwai Street, Beijing 100044, China
Zhi-Ming Dong: Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, 142 Xiwai Street, Beijing 100044, China

Nature, 2009, vol. 458, issue 7236, 333-336

Abstract: Early feathered dinosaurs Until now all the dinosaurs with feathers or similar integumentary structures discovered have been theropods — carnivorous bipeds that survive today in the form of birds. Feathery structures have been absent among the distantly related ornithischian dinosaurs, with the possible exception of Psittacosaurus, which has quill-like structures on its tail. Zheng et al. now describe an ornithischian with an all-over covering of feather-like structures, much more like those seen in theropods. This dinosaur belongs to a group of primitive ornithischians called heterodontosaurs, so the discovery suggests that feather-like structures are widespread in the dinosaurs and evolved very early in the evolutionary history of the group.

Date: 2009
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DOI: 10.1038/nature07856

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