Feathered Dinosaur Sciurumimus from Late Jurassic Germany
Published:
A dinosaur with a bushy, squirrel-like tail has been discovered in 150-million-year-old strata in Bavaria, southern Germany.
A paper titled "Exceptionally preserved juvenile megalosauroid theropod dinosaur with filamentous integument from the Late Jurassic of Germany" was published in the "Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS). 109."
Source: Rauhut, O. W. M.; Foth, C.; Tischlinger, H.; Norell, M. A. (2012). "Exceptionally preserved juvenile megalosauroid theropod dinosaur with filamentous integument from the Late Jurassic of Germany". Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. 109 (29): 11747–11752.
Named after the scientific name for squirrel, "Sciurus," it was called "Sciurumimus albersdoerferi."
Previously, it was thought that "feathers developed only in coelurosaurs."
Since the newly discovered feathered dinosaur Sciurumimus follows a different lineage that predates the development of coelurosaurs, a new theory has emerged:
"Perhaps feathers on dinosaurs were more common than we previously thought!?"
Museum Solnhofen | Bürgermeister-Müller-Museum, Germany.