Jan.
4, 2013 — A University of Alberta researcher's examination of fossilized
dinosaur tail bones has led to a breakthrough finding: some feathered dinosaurs
used tail plumage to attract mates, much like modern-day peacocks and turkeys.
U of
A Paleontology researcher Scott Persons followed a chain of fossil evidence
that started with a peculiar fusing together of vertebrae at the tip of the
tail of four different species of dinosaurs, some separated in time and
evolution by 45 million years.
Persons
says the final vertebrae in the tails of a group of dinosaurs called oviraptors
were fused together forming a ridged, blade-like structure. "The structure
is called a pygostyle" says Persons. "Among modern animals only birds
have them."
Researchers
say fossils of Similicaudiptery, an early oviraptor, reveals feathers radiating
from the fused bones at the tail tip. Similicaudiptery was not known to be
a flying dinosaur and Persons contends its tail feathers evolved as a means of
waving its feathered tail fans.
No
direct fossil evidence of feathers has been found with the fossils of the
oviraptors that followed Similicaudiptery, but Persons says there is still
strong evidence they had a feathered tail.
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