WHY DINOSAURS HAD FEATHERS

Dinosaurs developed feathers not to facilitate flight, but as a colorful means to attract mates. That’s the conclusion of scientists who closely studied the fossils of one of the earliest feathered dinosaurs ever found. Archaeologists had long been puzzled by the fact that the fossils of feathered dinosaurs unearthed over the past several decades were almost all of beasts far too big to fly. (click below to read more)


Now, a new analysis of the 75-million-year-old fossil skeletons of an adult and a juvenile Ornithomimus, unearthed in 1995 in Alberta, has established that only the adult—an ostrich-like creature that weighed up to 400 pounds—had the marks of large feathers on its forearms; the juvenile was covered only in a wispy down coat. “This suggests that the wings were used for purposes later in life, like reproductive activities such as display or courtship,” University of Calgary paleontologist Darla Zelenitsky tells NPR.org. Ornithomimus, which evolved some 155 million years ago, is among the earliest feathered dinosaurs yet discovered, so if his feathers served his amorous ambitions, the same is probably true for subsequent dinosaurs.