Dinosaur has 'modern' feathers: experts

Paleontologists working in China have found the first fossil of a dinosaur with modern feathers, like those of birds.

The American and Chinese researchers said their discovery shows that feathers evolved before birds or flight.

The fossil shows impressions of feathers in the rock, including a long plume of tail feathers, the paleontologists said.

The specimen is now at the Beipiao Paleontological Museum in China. An article on the fossil was published in Thursday's issue of Nature.

The study's lead author, Mark Norell of the American Museum of Natural History, said this is the first unequivocal evidence of complete feathers on a non-bird dinosaur.

Previous feather dinosaur fossils from the same site in China have shown downy, fluffy feathers.

• FROM April 28, 2001: Feathered dinosaur fossil found

The research team said this fossil, on the other hand, shows feathers that have a central hollow shaft, just as modern bird feathers do.

The 128-million-year-old fossil is a metre-long theropod called a dromaeosaur.

The two-legged carnivore couldn't fly, but might have used its feathers for warmth, suggesting they were warm-blooded animals.

Because the first theropods lived 235 million years ago, they were probably the first to evolve feathers, said Norell.

The first birds appeared about 150 million years ago.

Critics of Norell's work are skeptical, though. They say it's difficult to be sure if the fossil actually has modern-looking feathers with only photos to look at.

Storrs Olson, senior zoologist at the National Museum of Natural History in Washington, even said he wants to be sure the specimen hasn't had fossilized feathers added to it from another source.