Your mental image of dinosaurs may need an update.
Scientists have found new evidence that most dinosaurs had feathers either for additional warmth or to attract a mate, Live Science reported.
Detailing their findings in the journal Science, researchers have discovered hundreds of fossils of a new dinosaur genus and species named Kulindadromeus zabaikalicus in Siberia. The plant eater had both feathers and scales, hinting that feathers may have been common among dinosaurs.
"Here, for the first time, we have found featherlike structures in a dinosaur [that] is far from the lineage leading to birds," said study co-author Pascal Godefroit, a paleontologist at the Royal Belgian Institute of Natural Sciences in Belgium, as quoted by Live Science.
Uncovered at a site that was apparently once a large lake, the fossils have been dated to about 160 million years ago, putting them during the middle to late Jurassic period.
Godefroit puts the creature at around 4.9 feet tall, describing it as having two long, thin legs and short arms. Researchers will continue to hunt in the area to see if they unearth more dinosaurs, especially ones with feathers.
"We found [feathered fossils] in one locality in Siberia, and we will look around now to see if we can find more," said Godefroit, as quoted by Live Science.
Plenty of feathered dinosaurs have been found before, but they have been among the groups believed to be closely related to birds, which scientists place in dinosaurs' ancestry.
"This is the first time birdlike feathers have been found in dinosaurs that are not closely related to birds," said Darla Zelenitsky, a paleontologist at the University of Calgary in Canada, who was not involved in the study.
"This unexpectedly reveals that such feathers would likely have been present in most groups of dinosaurs," Zelenitsky told Live Science in an email.
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