News

Flight origins symposium @ Cincinnati SVP

Hila Tzipora Chase and I will be hosting a theropod flight origins symposium on October 19th. Find out about the latest insights and new frontiers from 1:45-4:15pm in Junior Ballroom A/B.

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Documentary filming in Montana

Tom Kaye and I were invited to join documentary filming in the Hell Creek Formation of Montana. We were tasked to fly ‘LaserRaptor’, our LSF-enabled autonomous drone system, over the badlands at night. Some nice shots were caught on camera. Stay tuned for the documentary in 2024/2025.

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Willi Henning Meeting Symposium @ Cornell 

I attended the WHS in Cornell as an invited speaker and organiser of the symposium ‘Methods using Palaeontological Datasets’. The symposium was well received and its outcomes will be reported in a special issue of Cladistics in 2024. Some of the authors involved include:

Pablo Goloboff, Unidad Ejecutora Lillo, UEL (CONICET – Fundación Miguel Lillo), Tucumán Argentina & Jan De Laet, Göteborgs Botaniska Trädgård, Göteborg, Sweden

Michel Laurin, CNRS/MNHN/UPMC, Sorbonne Université, Muséum National d’Histoire Naturelle, CR2P (“Centre de Recherches sur la Paléobiodiversité et les Paléoenvironnements” UMR 7207), Paris, France & Gilles Didier, 2 Univ Montpellier, CNRS, IMAG, Montpellier, France

Graeme Lloyd, School of Earth and Environment, University of Leeds, Leeds, UK & Jennifer Hoyal Cuthill, School of Life Sciences, University of Essex, UK

Jennifer Hoyal Cuthill, School of Life Sciences, University of Essex, UK & Nicholas Guttenberg, Cross Labs, Cross Compass Ltd., Kyoto, Japan

Diego Pol, Museo Paleontológico Egidio Feruglio, Trelew, Chubut, Argentina & Alan H Turner, Department of Anatomical Sciences, Stony Brook University, Stony Brook, USA

Martin Ezcurra, Museo Argentino de Ciencias Naturales, Buenos Aires, Argentina

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LSF retrospective in The Dinosaur Expo 2023

It was wonderful to see a retrospective of our LSF work in dinosaur palaeontology at The Dinosaur Expo 2023 in the National Museum of Nature and Science, Tokyo. Many thanks to Makoto Manabe and Chisa Sakata for making my visit very special. It was also great to visit the wonderful lab of collaborator Tatsuya Hirasawa at the University of Tokyo. I am very excited by our ongoing work with his PhD student Yurika Uno.

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LSF imaging of Maya archaeology in Guatemala & Belize

In May and June 2023, I travelled with colleagues from the Institute of Archaeology at UCL and Jagiellonian University to collect LSF data on different forms of Maya material culture in Guatemala and Belize and on some colonial church architecture. Covering sites in cool highlands over 3000m, jungle and barrier reefs, we had an enjoyable and successful trip that should result in ~4 neat papers. Stay tuned for our results in 2024!

   

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International Pennaraptoran Dinosaur Symposium 2 (IPDS2)

IPDS2 was successfully held at The Chinese University of Hong Kong from Friday March 17th – Monday March 20th 2023. The symposium brought together 25 experts from 10 countries to document current consensus and forge new ground in the study of theropod flight origins.

Experts covered diverse backgrounds ranging from palaeontologists with different related specialisms to biomechanicists, aerodynamicists, physicists and engineers interested in applying their expertise to study flight origins.

In addition to helping attendees refine the research they presented, the delegation plans to publish a perspective covering key symposium outcomes. A big thank you to the event’s sponsors: The Croucher Foundation & School of Life Sciences of The Chinese University of Hong Kong. The Hong Kong UNESCO Global Geopark is thanked for organising a boat tour of relevant field sites.

Stay tuned for symposium outcomes in the months and years ahead. See you at IPDS3!

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Welcoming two postdoctoral researchers to our lab!

   

A warm welcome to our newest postdoctoral researchers. Dr. Csaba Hefler is a Hungarian aerodynamicist investigating early flight performance. Dr. Nadia Haidr is an Argentine penguin and geometric morphometrics expert uncovering how wings evolved. Welcome Csaba & Nadia!

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Fieldwork Expeditions – Patagonia 2023

 

This year with Dr. Diego Pol and his team from the Museo Paleontológico Egidio Feruglio, we explored the Late Cretaceous La Colonia Formation of Chubut Province. Famous for Carnotaurus, this year we excavated a hadrosaur postcranial skeleton and prospected less explored localities. With Dr. Mattia Baiano and Dr. Jorge Meso, Dr. Pol and I also explored the famous Portezuelo localities of Neuquen Province, home of Neuquenraptor, Megaraptor and Patagonykus. We found some exciting titanosaur and dromaeosaurid material just as we were packing up on the last day! Excited to revisit these wonderful sites in 2024!

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Earliest evidence of macrocarnivory in birds

 

In iScience, we reported new dietary reconstructions for the Early Cretaceous pengornithid enantiornithines using an integrative approach involving multiple lines of evidence. We identified the earliest evidence of macrocarnivory in birds, extending the preview record by at least 35 million years. This insight was based on identified traits in Pengornis including large body size, moderately strong jaws, and enlarged and highly curved claws, which have converged with living raptorial birds. Find out more about the article and its significance here: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2589004223002882

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Evidence from feet reveals Microraptor had a hawk-like lifestyle

In Nature Communications, we compared the toe pads, foot scales, claws and joints of early theropod flyers with those of living birds to refine our understanding of their lifestyles. This was made possible by applying Laser-Stimulated Fluorescence (LSF) to >1,000 fossils that revealed a handful of specimens with particularly well-preserved soft tissue covered feet as well as traditional morphometrics of foot claw shape and size. Among the exciting new insights uncovered was that Microraptor had a specialised lifestyle similar to living hawks. Find out more about the article and its significance here: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-022-35039-1

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Soft anatomy profiles confirm shoulder-powered wing upstroke in ancestral theropod flyers

In PNAS, we presented soft anatomy profiles of a range of key early theropod flyers based on Laser-Stimulated Fluorescence imaging (LSF) of over 1000 fossils. By combining soft anatomy data with quantitative skeletal reconstructions, we confirm an ancestral flight system divided between shoulder muscles powering wing upstrokes and chest muscles powering wing downstrokes. We also identify the first upstroke-enhanced flight stroke and explain early sternum losses. Find out more about the article and its significance here: https://www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.2205476119

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Welcoming two new research assistants to our lab!

A warm welcome to our newest research assistants, Matthieu Chotard (second from right) and Maxime Grosmougin (furthest left). Matthieu and Maxime both have backgrounds in vertebrate palaeontology gained from BSc and MSc studies in France. They will be assisting with our ongoing research projects, including with research into paravian flight origins. Welcome!

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Falling Walls Science Breakthroughs of the Year Award Finalist

I am honoured to have been selected as a finalist for the Falling Walls Science Breakthroughs of the Year Award for my Laser-Stimulated Fluorescence work in palaeontology. Initiated by the Berlin-based Falling Walls Foundation, this award showcases and celebrates the most recent breakthroughs in science and society from all around the world and is selected by a jury of globally recognised experts.

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Quadrupedal water launch capability in small late Jurassic pterosaurs

In Scientific Reports, we reported quadrupedal water launch capability in a small late Jurassic pterosaur. LSF imaging revealed soft tissues relevant to the calculations. The webbed feet in our pterosaur turned out to be an important trait for water launch. Find our more in the article here: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-022-10507-2

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Laser-Stimulated Fluorescence in archaeology

In Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports, we introduce LSF to the field of archaeology, proposing a range of promising applications for both museum and field settings. This paper features specimens from the Verulamium Museum in St Albans, UK. Find out more in the article here: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2352409X22001389

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The diet of longipterygid birds

In BMC Biology, we reconstruct the diet of toothed longipterygid enantiornithine birds using a framework developed by Miller et al. 2020 (Biological Reviews). We find that they were most likely to be invertivores or generalist feeders, with raptorial behaviour likely in Longipteryx and Rapaxavis. This paper is the first results chapter of Case V. Miller’s PhD thesis. Congrats Case! Find out more in the article here: https://bmcbiol.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12915-022-01294-3

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The skin and belly button of Psittacosaurus

In Communications Biology, we described the exquisitely preserved integument of Psittacosaurus in detail and discuss what this tells us about the scaly skin of ceratopsian dinosaurs more broadly. This study was made possible by LSF images taken by Michael Pittman and Thomas G Kaye. Find out more in the article here: https://www.nature.com/articles/s42003-022-03749-3

In BMC Biology, we also described the ‘belly button’ of Psittacosaurus, the earliest known record of an umbilical scar among amniotes. We discussed what this tells us about the biology of this animal and other dinosaurs. Find out more in the article here: https://bmcbiol.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12915-022-01329-9

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New position at the Chinese University of Hong Kong 

I am very happy to join the team at the School of Life Sciences in the Chinese University of Hong Kong. I am looking forward to growing my lab and taking my teaching and research to new heights.

If you are interested in dinosaur biology and evolution, especially the dinosaur to bird transition and the evolution of flight, please get in touch. We are looking for talented Research Assistants, PhDs and Postdocs to join the lab. My email is mpittman@cuhk.edu.hk

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New data from first discovered dinosaur skin fossil uncovers Early Jurassic origin of skin papillae and their potential link to gigantism

In Communications Biology, we use LSF to revealed new data from the first discovered fossil of dinosaur skin. We find that this iconic fossil preserves the external skin surface rather than its underside. We also describe bumps within the convex scales called intrascale papillae that we find among stem neosauropods, suggesting they had a potential role in the evolution for sauropod giantism.

Find out more in this post: https://ecoevocommunity.nature.com/posts/laser-sheds-new-light-on-first-discovered-dinosaur-skin and in the article: www.nature.com/articles/s42003-022-03062-z.

This paper involved dinosaur skin experts Nathan Enriquez and Phil R. Bell (University of New England, Australia), sauropod expert Paul Upchurch (UCL, UK; my former PhD advisor) and LSF co-developer Tom G Kaye.

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The skin of non-avialan theropods 

In Biological Reviews, we review the morphology and distribution of scales, dermal ossifications, and other non-feather integumentary structures in non-avialan theropod dinosaurs. This reviews includes a range of new and existing observations based on LSF images. Find out more in the article which involved an international team led by Christophe Hendrickx (Lillo Institute, Argentina) and including Phil R. Bell (University of New England, Australia): https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/brv.12829.

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SYSU-HKU palaeontology workshop

The lab took part in the inaugural Sun Yat Sen University – University of Hong Kong palaeontology workshop held on Zoom between January 14th – 16th 2022. The workshop featured interesting talks and discussion covering the breadth of palaeontology including work on plants, invertebrates, vertebrate and geochronology. This successful workshop included student awards with a ‘Best Student Report’ awarded to Luke Barlow for his presentation on the anatomy and function of the pterosaur wing root. Special thanks to Pang Hong and the lead organiser Bao Tong. We look forward to the next workshop in 2023.

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Macroevolutionary trends in theropod dinosaur feeding mechanics

In Current Biology, we uncover macroevolutionary trends in theropod dinosaur feeding mechanics.

We observe a general trend of jaw strengthening along all theropod lineages and find that carnivores and herbivores achieved this via different morphofunctional modifications. We also see the same jaw strengthening trend ontogenetically among tyrannosaurids. We suggest that these common jaw strengthening trends are linked to functional peramorphosis of bone functional adaptation. Find out more in the article: www.cell.com/current-biology/pdf/S0960-9822(21)01646-8.pdf. This paper led by my co-supervisee Fion Ma arose from her PhD thesis.

Palaeoart by Gabriel Ugueto

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Laser-Stimulated Fluorescence reveals unseen details in Solnhofen fossils

In Royal Society Open Science, we compare LSF and UV imaging of Solnhofen fossils. In revealing details that are only revealed under LSF, we recommend LSF in future studies of these iconic fossils. Find out more in the article: https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/rsos.211601. This paper was led by our Research Assistant Luke Barlow and developed from his MSc dissertation at the University of Portsmouth.

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Muscular pterosaur wing–body junction provided multiple flight performance benefits

In a cover article of PNAS, we report a muscular pterosaur wing-body junction based on Laser-Stimulated Fluorescence imaging of a Late Jurassic specimen from southern Germany. Unlike the feather- and fur-dominated wing-body junctions of birds and bats, pterosaurs appear to have used their muscular wing-body junction for sophisticated wing root control and wing force generation rather than just advanced aerodynamic smoothing. Find out more in this summary: https://www.pnas.org/content/118/44/eiti4421118 and in the article: https://www.pnas.org/content/118/44/e2107631118.

Congratulations to my Research Assistant Luke Barlow on his first published paper!

I would like to thank the university for their approval of my application for Senior Fellowship of the Higher Education Academy (SFHEA). The SFHEA evidences my leadership and management experience in teaching and learning in higher education. I’m thrilled to be one of a select few Senior Fellows in my Faculty.  I look forward to my continued teaching development.

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Grant funding for the study of early bird diet

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First oviraptorosaur theropod preserved atop a clutch of embryo-containing eggs

We described the first fossil of an oviraptorosaurian theropod preserved atop a clutch of embryo-containing eggs. Clutch geometry, advanced growth stages of the embryos and their high estimated incubation temperatures support brooding. Differences in the developmental stages among the embryos suggest that hatching was asynchronous. Together these findings indicate that reproductive biology evolved in a complex, non-linear manner along the theropod lineage to modern birds. Read more in the Science Bulletin paper co-authored with Bi Shundong and Xu Xing:

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S2095927320307635#!

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Iconic fossil bird Archaeopteryx moulted like a falcon

The early bird Archaeopteryx moulted like falcons which adopt a moult strategy that maintains flight performance. This suggests that flight-related moulting was a welcome benefit to poorer flying early birds like Archaeopteryx.

Read more in the Communications Biology paper with Tom G Kaye and William R Wahl: https://rdcu.be/cbQ33

Press release: https://www.hku.hk/press/press-releases/detail/22115.html

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Presenter of a dinosaur-themed classical concert

I was thrilled to present a dinosaur-themed classical music concert with the Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra on November 28th. I’ve loved classical music since I was young so combining this interest with my palaeontology work was very exciting!

For the details of the concert see: https://www.hkphil.org/concert/the-dinosaur-footprints-

I am delighted to announce that I have been appointed the Assistant Dean (e-learning) of the Faculty of Science. Over my term, I will lead the development and implementation of the faculty’s e-learning strategy. I look forward to working with faculty colleagues to bring our e-learning to heights.

Third edition of Dinosaur Ecosystems completed!

Massive thank you to my course team and our wonderful learners for an amazing six weeks in the world of dinosaurs: http://edx.org/course/dinosaur-ecosystems

See you next time!

Highlights from December 2018 to January 2019 trip to New York and Argentina

Visited the American Museum of Natural History and then flew down to Argentina for field work, research + Dinosaur Ecosystems MOOC filming w/ Diego Pol of the Museo Paleontológico Egidio Feruglio.

Saw a number of importance specimens across Neuquen and Rio Negro provinces and meet a number of wonderful colleagues for the first time: Rodolfo Corio, Leonardo Filippi and Jorge Calvo.

Visited Federico Agnolin and colleagues at the Museo Argentino de Ciencias Naturales “Bernardino Rivadavia” in Buenos Aires. Worked with Santiago Reuil to produce two cardboard dinosaur masks for Dinosaur Ecosystems.

Amber symposium in Bangkok, Thailand

Had a great trip to Bangkok for a Burmese amber workshop.

Research visit to the Verulamium Museum in St. Albans, UK

Had a wonderful time working with the curator David Thorold and Tom Kaye to LSF Roman artefacts.

HKU research visit by Thomas G Kaye

Great having Tom Kaye at HKU Department of Earth Sciences to work on a range of ongoing projects supported by the HKU Faculty of Science RAE Improvement Fund.

Australia October 2019: SVP Annual Meeting & ANSTO neutron and synchrotron imaging experiments

This was one of my favourite SVPs so far. It was a pleasure to moderate the bird origin and evolution session with Aurore Canoville and to contribute a talk on flight-related soft tissues. PhD student Arindam Roy talked about palaeocolour reconstruction at the podium symposium ‘From molecules to macroevolution’. Had an awesome experience conducting neutron and synchrotron imaging experiments with Joseph Bevitt of ANSTO.

Amniote palaeocolour reconstruction

What colour were fossil animals?

Find out about colour reconstruction in ancient reptiles and mammals as well as a new study framework in our open access Biological Reviews paper: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/brv.12552
Congratulations to Arindam Roy on his first peer-reviewed publication!

Summer fieldwork in Wyoming, USA

Summer fieldwork in central eastern Wyoming with Tom Kaye included a visit to the home of T. rex and Triceratops! 🦖🤠⛏

Born to run: early birds ready to fly after hatching

Using LSF imaging, we revealed feathering around the body of a ~126 million year old enantiornithine bird hatchling. 🐣 This indicates that it came ‘out of the egg running’ and was probably ready-to-fly! 🐥 This precocial strategy appears to be the primary one among early birds, unlike most living birds which have helpless newborns that require more parental care. Troodontids may also have been precocial so precociality probably had deeper theropod origins.

The identify of the first discovered fossil feather

The first discovered fossil feather was originally referred to the iconic bird Archaeopteryx. Using LSF, we reveal that the long lost quill of the fossil specimen and use its complete morphology to show that it does not match the plumage of known Archaeopteryx specimens. Instead, the feather seems to belong to another feathered dinosaur!

Highlights from December 2018 – January 2019 research trip to Argentina

• Talk on theropod flight origins at Investigadores y Becarios UEL, Fundacion Miguel Lillo in Tucuman as a guest of Pablo Goloboff:

• Carnotaurus and paravian specimens at Museo Argentino de Ciencias Naturales “Bernardino Rivadavia” in Buenos Aires w/ Fernandos Novas, Federico Agnolin and colleagues:
• Dinosaur footprints in the Maastrichtian Yacoraite Formation of Jujuy Province.
• Visits to the spectacular Parque Nacional Talampaya & Parque Provincial Ischigualasto in Patagonia:
• Visit to Ricardo Martinez‘s lab and the early dinosaurs in the Museo de Ciencias Naturales in San Juan.
• Visit to Museo Paleontológico Egidio Feruglio in Trelew w/ Diego Pol at 
• Fieldwork in the Carnotaurus locality. Late Cretaceous & Palaeogene La Colonia Formation of Chubut Province

Pterosaur feathering discovering in Nature Ecology and Evolution

Delighted to share a co-authored Nature Ecology & Evolution paper w/ Michael Benton (University of Bristol) and Baoyu Jiang (Nanjing University) about pterosaur integumentary structures. It was a great pleasure to #LSF the Nanjing specimen with Tom Kaye to show the extent of its soft tissue preservation (black in the image). The integumentary structures we describe look just like those of feathered theropod dinosaurs, which we suggest indicates a deeper origin of feathers.

2018 Yidan Prize presentation & summit

Left to Right: Prof. Ricky Kwok, Associate Vice-President (Teaching and Learning) HKU  / Michael Pittman / Prof. Anant Agarwal, Founder and CEO of edX, 2018 Yidan Prize for Education Development Laureate / Prof. Chetwyn Chan, Associate Vice President (Learning and Teaching), The Hong Kong Polytechnic University / Prof. Ting-Chuen Pong, Director of Center for Engineering Education Innovation, HKUST

Honoured to represent HKU at these prestigious events. Lots of inspiration for my future teaching!

Thanks for joining us for the Second Edition of Dinosaur Ecosystems!
Hope you enjoyed the course. See you next time for the Third Edition.

Morphological Datasets Fit a Common Mechanism Much More Poorly than DNA Sequences and Call Into Question the Mkv Model

Delighted to share our paper in Systematic Biology: https://doi.org/10.1093/sysbio/syy077

HKU EarthSciences @ Information Day

It was great connecting with prospective students. Thank you everyone for the fruitful Q&As at our booths next to the Stephen Hui Geological Museum & #YuetMingFoundationArea. As the Chairman of the departmental Outreach Committee I helped to organise the department’s contribution to this event.

Award for Teaching Innovations in e-learning

Delighted to share that I received Faculty of Science, The University of Hong Kong Award for Teaching Innovations in #elearning for my work on Dinosaur Ecosystems

Thanks to the course team + students for making this possible!

Society of Vertebrate Paleontology #2018SVP Annual Meeting 

Thanks for coming to my talk on #theropod #flightorigins. Really appreciate the nice feedback. Congratulations to my students Arindam Roy and Raymond Fong on their first #SVP talks as PhD students. Talks on #Yiqi and #Lystrosaurus respectively.

Lunch Event of HKU MOOC Dinosaur Ecosystems – October 4th 2018

On October 4th 2018, we launched the second edition of Dinosaur Ecosystems, HKU’s prize-nominated MOOC course that I produced and teach.

You can enrol for free at www.edx.org/course/dinosaur-ecosystems

Follow the course on Facebook and Twitter

Find more about our nomination for the 2018 edX Prize for Exceptional Contributions in Online Teaching and Learning at https://blog.edx.org/congratulations-2018-edx-prize-finalists?track=blog

International Palaeontological Congress 5 – Paris, France

 From July 9th – 13th, I attended the fifth International Palaeontological Congress in Paris, France. I presented two talks on theropod flight origins and my collaborator Diego Pol presented a third talk on our recent work on phylogenetic methods. The congress was really enjoyable and productive. I joined a post-congress fieldtrip to the famous Early Cretaceous Angeac-Charente locality, which involved helping with their on-going excavations. I produced this video on it as part of the upcoming second edition of my HKU MOOC Dinosaur Ecosystems.

Diego presenting our talk         

A gathering of bird researchers

A road named after the famous naturalist

Even the hotel was bird-themed!

Excavations at the Angeac-Charente locality. The site is famous for its herd of ornithomimosaurs.

Inaugural International Pennaraptoran Dinosaur Symposium hosted at HKU

              Symposium poster                                            Group photo of attendees

From March 29th-31st, our lab hosted the inaugural International Pennaraptoran Dinosaur Symposium at HKU with Xing Xu (IVPP). 30 attendees from 7 countries shared and discussed their work on pennaraptoran dinosaurs to deepen our understanding of avian and flight origins. The symposium: documented existing points of consensus and disagreement in the field; built consensus in new areas through symposium discussions; reported cutting-edge discoveries in new areas of research and discussed their future directions. The results of the symposium will be published in a journal volume in 2019 and focuses on the consensus that was built on unresolved issues.

Arindam Roy collecting his best talk prize on day 2. Josef Stiegler (GWU, USA) was awarded the best talk prize on day 1.  Thanks to our judges Peter Makovicky and Hans Larsson!

A new species of crownward troodontid

In December 2017, Rui Pei, an ex-VPL postdoc, announced the discovery of Almas ukhaa, a new species of later-diverging troodontid from the Late Cretaceous of Mongolia. Almas is described in the paper ‘Osteology of a new Late Cretaceous troodontid specimen from Ukhaa Tolgod, Ömnögovi Aimag, Mongolia‘ in American Museum Novitates.

The mandible of Gigantoraptor, the largest beaked theropod

In November 2017, Fion Wai Sum Ma, an ex-undergraduate student of mine, published her first scientific paper in Scientific Reports on the ‘Functional anatomy of a giant toothless mandible from a bird-like dinosaur: Gigantoraptor and the evolution of the oviraptorosaurian jaw‘.

This paper is the first detailed description of the spectacular jaw of this iconic oviraptorosaur and leverages new insights to comment on the evolution of the oviraptorosaurian jaw. This study was part of Fion’s faculty Overseas Research Fellowship and departmental Final Year Project, both of which were co-supervised by Xing Xu of the IVPP. This project was completed in collaboration with colleagues in Inner Mongolia, including Lin Tan of the Longhao Institute of Geology and Paleontology.

Fion is continuing her work on the oviraptorosaur skull as an MSc student of Stephen Brusatte at the University of Edinburgh. Fion will be starting a PhD on the same subject at the University of Birmingham in October 2018. Her supervisors will be Stephan Lautenschlager, myself and Richard Butler.

A new species of asymmetrically feathered troodontid

Jianianhualong tengi is an asymmetrically feathered troodontid from the Early Cretaceous of Northeastern China. It has transitional features and along with Sinusonasus provides evidence of mosaic evolution in troodontids. The asymmetrical feathers in this taxon represent the first record in a troodontid. Taken together with other paravian feathering data, this new find suggests that the common ancestor of Paraves possessed asymmetrical feathers too.

The study is co-lead with Xu Xing of the Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology (Chinese Academy of Sciences) and Philip Currie of the University of Alberta (Canada). Life reconstruction by Julius T. Csotonyi.

Select coverage at:
Forbes.com: www.forbes.com/sites/shaenamontanari/2017/05/02/a-newly-discovered-dinosaur-has-tail-feathers-like-modern-birds/#4bbcc1536c1d
National Geographic: http://news.nationalgeographic.com/2017/05/fossil-dinosaur-theropod-feather-evolution-discovery-china/ (commentary by Dr. Ryan Carney)
CBC: www.cbc.ca/news/technology/feathered-dinosaur-evolution-birds-1.4090351
am730 (in Chinese): www.am730.com.hk/news…
The Standard: www.thestandard.com.hk/section-news.php?id=182563

Feathered dinosaur Anchiornis in the flesh

In this study, we produced the first quantitative body outline of a feathered dinosaur with the help of laser-based fossil imaging (laser-stimulated fluorescence imaging). We used these data as other soft tissue details of the wing and feet to comment on the functional anatomy of early-diverging paravians.

The study is co-lead with Wang Xiaoli of Linyi University and features the spectacular fossils of the Shandong Tianyu Museum of Nature (China). Tom Kaye ensured our images were as good as they could be. We worked with the wonderful Scott Hartman to carefully produce this amazing body outline. Life reconstruction by Julius T. Csotonyi.