New feathered Dinosaur

[painted wolf]

A newly described fossil of a juvenile theropod: Sciurumimus albersdoerferi, pushes feathers even further back into the dinosaur family tree. The genus name means "squirrel mimic" in honor of the bushy tail where most of the feathers are preserved. The species name is in honor of the owner of the fossil who allowed scientists the chance to prepare and study it.

This little guy is a megalosaur, a fairly primitive group of theropod dinosaurs... up until now unambiguous protofeathers/feathers have been found only in coelurosaurs a fairly advanced group that includes T.rex, "raptors" and ultimately birds.

This not only pushes back protofeathers but lends weight to the hypothesis that all dinosaurs had such structures (even if only as hatchlings) and that the quill-like structures found in some exceptionally preserved ornithopods may be either specialized protofeathers or an earlier stage in their evolution.

Plus it's a super cute little baby dinosaur that is amazingly complete.

and under UV

You can just make out some of the feathers on the tail.

wa:do

 

[Iti oj]

cool thanks for sharing.

 

[painted wolf]

And in other news... the origin of animals has been pushed back another 30 million years to 585mya. Making the Cambrian Explosion even less about the appearance of animals and more about a particularly well preserved snapshot of an already thriving world.

The critters of 585mya were soft bodied while those of 530mya (Cambrian Explosion) had developed exoskeletons and the very beginnings of what would eventually become our skeleton. So this is still a fascinating time for the evolution of animals.

Abstract of the paper on this find here: Bilaterian Burrows and Grazing Behavior at >585 Million Years Ago

wa:do

 

[outhouse]

excellent post.


With time, even more evidence will surface and then be ignored and refused. thankfully many of our children are breaking free from the brainwashing of our past culture.


with new discovery's comes hope

 

[BBTimeless]

That is so cool. It boggles my mind with all of the stuff we find!

 

[dust1n]

And in other news... the origin of animals has been pushed back another 30 million years to 585mya. Making the Cambrian Explosion even less about the appearance of animals and more about a particularly well preserved snapshot of an already thriving world.

The critters of 585mya were soft bodied while those of 530mya (Cambrian Explosion) had developed exoskeletons and the very beginnings of what would eventually become our skeleton. So this is still a fascinating time for the evolution of animals.

Abstract of the paper on this find here: Bilaterian Burrows and Grazing Behavior at >585 Million Years Ago

wa:do

We figured out what the first animal is yet?

 

[painted wolf]

We figured out what the first animal is yet?

Not yet, but have a good hypothesis as to what it would have looked like... even some of it's genetics.

wa:do

 

[Iti oj]

Not yet, but have a good hypothesis as to what it would have looked like... even some of it's genetics.

wa:do

more info please

 

[BBTimeless]

Not yet, but have a good hypothesis as to what it would have looked like... even some of it's genetics.

wa:do

If you have some articles on this I would be very interested! Thanks.

 

[dust1n]

Not yet, but have a good hypothesis as to what it would have looked like... even some of it's genetics.

wa:do

Noice. It's a fungus like blob?

 

[painted wolf]

Noice. It's a fungus like blob?

more like a "worm-thing"... of course in this context the "earliest animal" is the urbilaterian... the ancestor of all the animals from "worms" up. So a bit more "advanced" than sponges and jellies.

The first metazoans would be amazingly more simple... living placozoans are the simplest living metazoans and they are only three layers of cells thick, you could easily mistake them for an amoeba. Identifying their fossils would be an even greater challenge due to their extremely small size. So in that case...yeah, a blob.

wa:do