Dinosaur 'resembled exotic chicken'

5 February 2010

Brightly-coloured feathers adorned a "striking" dinosaur that resembled an exotic chicken, scientists have determined.

Anchiornis huxleyi, extinct for 150 million years, had a grey body with bold black and white feathers, a reddish-brown head crest and freckles. It is the first time scientists have uncovered the colours of a complete dinosaur.

Earlier this month another team of researchers revealed that a feathered dinosaur called Sinosauropteryx had an orange and white striped tail. Prior to the new discoveries experts had only been able to guess dinosaur colouring.

The latest fossil, like the previous one, was unearthed in Liaoning Province, north-east China, which has proven to be a gold mine for dinosaur hunters.

Anchiornis is known as the "four winged" dinosaur because of the bird-like feathers it sported on its legs and arms. A team of US and Chinese scientists examined 29 feather samples from the fossil and identified microscopic colour pigment cell bodies called melanosomes.

Different colours can be determined from their shape. In modern birds and mammals, long and narrow melanosomes produce black and grey shades while short and wide versions are responsible for rusty red and brown tones.

Anchiornis had colour patterns similar to those of the modern Spangled Hamburg chicken, said the researchers writing in the journal Science. Professor Richard Prum, from Yale University in Connecticut, said: "This was no crow or sparrow, but a creature with a very notable plumage. This would be a very striking animal if it was alive today."

The small dinosaur, which stood on two legs and measured less than 20 inches, was first described last year. Its unusual appearance fuelled the debate about whether dinosaurs evolved into birds. Anchiornis pre-dated the first known flying bird, Archaeopteryx, by around 10 million years.

Prof Prum believes the creature's colours may have been used for communication or to attract mates. The research lends support to the theory that dinosaurs first evolved feathers for purposes other than flight.

Co-author Julia Clarke, from the University of Texas, said: "This means a colour-patterning function - for example, camouflage or display - must have had a key role in the early evolution of feathers in dinosaurs, and was just as important as evolving flight or improved aerodynamic function."

http://uk.news.yahoo.com/21/20100205/tsc-dinosaur-resembled-exotic-chicken-4b158bc.html
(Submitted by Richard Freeman)

See also: http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/80beats/2010/02/05/early-dino-had-crazy-colored-feathers-resembled-spangled-hamburg-chicken/
(Submitted by T. Peter Park)