Two exceptionally well preserved fossils give a new picture of the pterosaurs, the flying reptiles that lived at the time of the dinosaurs.

Scientists believe the creatures may have had feathers, and looked something like brown bats with fuzzy wings.

The surprise discovery suggests feathers evolved not in birds, nor dinosaurs, but in more distant times.

Pterosaurs were the closest relatives of dinosaurs, sharing a common ancestor about 250 million years ago.

“We would suggest – tentatively – that it would be worth considering that feathers originated much earlier than we thought,” Prof Mike Benton, from the University of Bristol, told BBC News.

Hailing from China, the 160-million-year-old fossils are of two different pterosaurs, one of which is newly discovered.

Strange feathery creatures

In depth analysis shows that as well as fur – which has been suggested before – the flying reptiles had feathers like some dinosaurs, including the theropods.

“If I just saw these fluffy bits on their own, I would swear they were from a theropod dinosaur,” said Dr Steve Brusatte of the University of Edinburgh, who was not part of the study.

“This means feathers were not a bird innovation, not even a dinosaur innovation, but evolved first in a much more distant ancestor.

“The age of dinosaurs was full of all sorts of strange feathery creatures!”

Full Report

Yes. I thought it was known that pterosaurs had dinofluff. But perhaps I was thinking that they had hair/filaments.

I certainly hadn’t heard of them having this much fluff.

mollwollfumble said:

Yes. I thought it was known that pterosaurs had dinofluff. But perhaps I was thinking that they had hair/filaments.

I certainly hadn’t heard of them having this much fluff.

It was known that they had fur, not feathers.

mollwollfumble said:

Yes. I thought it was known that pterosaurs had dinofluff. But perhaps I was thinking that they had hair/filaments.

I certainly hadn’t heard of them having this much fluff.

To be honest, these tendrils aren’t clearly feathers. They look as much like early hair as they do like early feathers. Perhaps it is just something else entirely.

Pterosaurs are not closely related to dinosaurs, and if we were to assume that both dinosaurs and pterosaurs had feathers because a common ancestor had feathers, which pushes feathers back to 250 million years, odd.

I mean obv this is their field but I’m just saying I’ll wait until the idea is more thoroughly discussed by subject matter experts.

Bubblecar said:

Two exceptionally well preserved fossils give a new picture of the pterosaurs, the flying reptiles that lived at the time of the dinosaurs.

Scientists believe the creatures may have had feathers, and looked something like brown bats with fuzzy wings.

The surprise discovery suggests feathers evolved not in birds, nor dinosaurs, but in more distant times.

Pterosaurs were the closest relatives of dinosaurs, sharing a common ancestor about 250 million years ago.

“We would suggest – tentatively – that it would be worth considering that feathers originated much earlier than we thought,” Prof Mike Benton, from the University of Bristol, told BBC News.

Hailing from China, the 160-million-year-old fossils are of two different pterosaurs, one of which is newly discovered.

Strange feathery creatures

In depth analysis shows that as well as fur – which has been suggested before – the flying reptiles had feathers like some dinosaurs, including the theropods.

“If I just saw these fluffy bits on their own, I would swear they were from a theropod dinosaur,” said Dr Steve Brusatte of the University of Edinburgh, who was not part of the study.

“This means feathers were not a bird innovation, not even a dinosaur innovation, but evolved first in a much more distant ancestor.

“The age of dinosaurs was full of all sorts of strange feathery creatures!”

Full Report

feathers fur, and fins?

roughbarked said:

Bubblecar said:

Two exceptionally well preserved fossils give a new picture of the pterosaurs, the flying reptiles that lived at the time of the dinosaurs.

Scientists believe the creatures may have had feathers, and looked something like brown bats with fuzzy wings.

The surprise discovery suggests feathers evolved not in birds, nor dinosaurs, but in more distant times.

Pterosaurs were the closest relatives of dinosaurs, sharing a common ancestor about 250 million years ago.

“We would suggest – tentatively – that it would be worth considering that feathers originated much earlier than we thought,” Prof Mike Benton, from the University of Bristol, told BBC News.

Hailing from China, the 160-million-year-old fossils are of two different pterosaurs, one of which is newly discovered.

Strange feathery creatures

In depth analysis shows that as well as fur – which has been suggested before – the flying reptiles had feathers like some dinosaurs, including the theropods.

“If I just saw these fluffy bits on their own, I would swear they were from a theropod dinosaur,” said Dr Steve Brusatte of the University of Edinburgh, who was not part of the study.

“This means feathers were not a bird innovation, not even a dinosaur innovation, but evolved first in a much more distant ancestor.

“The age of dinosaurs was full of all sorts of strange feathery creatures!”

Full Report

feathers fur, and fins?

i remember that show

dv said:

roughbarked said:

Bubblecar said:

Two exceptionally well preserved fossils give a new picture of the pterosaurs, the flying reptiles that lived at the time of the dinosaurs.

Scientists believe the creatures may have had feathers, and looked something like brown bats with fuzzy wings.

The surprise discovery suggests feathers evolved not in birds, nor dinosaurs, but in more distant times.

Pterosaurs were the closest relatives of dinosaurs, sharing a common ancestor about 250 million years ago.

“We would suggest – tentatively – that it would be worth considering that feathers originated much earlier than we thought,” Prof Mike Benton, from the University of Bristol, told BBC News.

Hailing from China, the 160-million-year-old fossils are of two different pterosaurs, one of which is newly discovered.

Strange feathery creatures

In depth analysis shows that as well as fur – which has been suggested before – the flying reptiles had feathers like some dinosaurs, including the theropods.

“If I just saw these fluffy bits on their own, I would swear they were from a theropod dinosaur,” said Dr Steve Brusatte of the University of Edinburgh, who was not part of the study.

“This means feathers were not a bird innovation, not even a dinosaur innovation, but evolved first in a much more distant ancestor.

“The age of dinosaurs was full of all sorts of strange feathery creatures!”

Full Report

feathers fur, and fins?

i remember that show

Clearly that makes two of us. ;)

It also suggest coevolution of feathers instead of distant common ancestor

dv said:

I mean obv this is their field but I’m just saying I’ll wait until the idea is more thoroughly discussed by subject matter experts.

We’re all experts here so lets get on with it.

dv said:

mollwollfumble said:

Yes. I thought it was known that pterosaurs had dinofluff. But perhaps I was thinking that they had hair/filaments.

I certainly hadn’t heard of them having this much fluff.

To be honest, these tendrils aren’t clearly feathers. They look as much like early hair as they do like early feathers. Perhaps it is just something else entirely.

Pterosaurs are not closely related to dinosaurs, and if we were to assume that both dinosaurs and pterosaurs had feathers because a common ancestor had feathers, which pushes feathers back to 250 million years, odd.

Well they are and they aren’t. Pterosaurs are the closest relatives to dinosaurs, closer than the ichthyosaurs and plesiosaurs for example.

But you’re right in that it pushes downy feathers so far back that the discovery of a single sauropod with downy feathers (all others are theropods) no longer matters. Sauropods and theropods diverged about 230 million years ago, so this new discovery pushes back the origin of fluffy feathers a further 20 million years.