Psittacosaurus, a 120million-year-old dinosaur

I am a newly discovered specimen of the feathered dinosaur

I am Psittacosaurus.

From the early Cretaceous period when dinosaurs were evolving into birds

Though now extinct, I had both ‘scales and bird-like skin with feathers’.

Your scientists are calling me a ‘hidden step’ in dinosaur feather evolution.

The evolutionary transition from scales to feathers occurred in dinosaurs around 135–120 million years ago.

Being more technologically advanced than we were back then

You now boast Using UV light, which has identified patches of our preserved skin,

which are invisible in natural light. X-rays and infrared light also found incredible details of our preserved cellular structure

Only under UV light is the skin visible, in a striking orange-yellow glow.

Really surprising is the chemistry of our fossil skin, which is composed of silica – the same as glass.

This type of preservation has never been found in vertebrate fossils. There are potentially many more fossils with hidden soft tissues awaiting your discovery.

“The evolution of feathers from reptilian scales is one of the most profound yet poorly understood events in vertebrate evolution. While numerous fossils of feathers have been studied, fossil skin is much more rare". Your experts say.

“Our discovery suggests that soft, bird-like skin initially developed only in feathered regions of the body, while the rest of the skin was still scaly, like in modern reptiles".

"This zoned development would have maintained essential skin functions, such as protection against abrasion, dehydration and parasites. The first dinosaur to experiment with feathers could therefore survive and pass down the genes for feathers to their offspring".

The 120-million-year-old Psittacosaurus specimen, NJUES-10, is currently being housed at Nanjing University in China.

See you there soon.

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Excerpts from story by Zahra Khaliq

The Mirror