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American Zoologist 2000 40(4):687-694; doi:10.1093/icb/40.4.687
© 2000 by The Society for Integrative and Comparative Biology
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The Fossil Record of Feather Evolution in the Mesozoic1

Larry D. Martin2,1 and Stephan A. Czerkas2
1 Museum of Natural History and Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology University of Kansas, Lawrence, Kansas 66045
2 The Dinosaur Museum, P.O. Box 277, Monticello, Utah 84535

The oldest known feathers from the Late Jurassic are already modern in form and microscopic detail. Because these oldest examples are assignable to an extinct branch (Sauriurae) of the basal avian dichotomy, their features must have been established at a significantly earlier date. The skin of a wide variety of dinosaurs is now known and is unlikely to represent a predecessor to a feather bearing integument. Examples of feathered dinosaurs result from erroneous identification of internal structures as part of the skin covering, and from the confusion of flightless birds from the Early Cretaceous of China with dinosaurs.


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