A new maniraptoran dinosaur from China with long feathers on the metatarsus
Abstract
The unusual presence of long pennaceous feathers on the feet of basal dromaeosaurid dinosaurs has recently been presented as strong evidence in support of the arboreal-gliding hypothesis for the origin of bird flight, but it could be a unique feature of dromaeosaurids and thus irrelevant to the theropod-bird transition. Here, we report a new eumaniraptoran theropod from China, with avian affinities, which also has long pennaceous feathers on its feet. This suggests that such morphology might represent a primitive adaptation close to the theropod-bird transition. The long metatarsus feathers are likely primitive for Eumaniraptora and might have played an important role in the origin of avian flight.
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Prior to recent descriptions, no certain pre-Kimmeridgian representatives of maniraptorans were known.
“Prior to the recent description of abundant maniraptoran theropods from the Oxfordian of China ([4, 5, 27, 31, 34, 45, 46, 57, 58]), no certain pre-Kimmeridgian representatives of this clade were known.”
From Re-evaluation of the Haarlem Archaeopteryx and the radiation of maniraptoran theropod dinosaurs (2017) · cites this paper as [58]
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“Prior to the recent description of abundant maniraptoran theropods from the Oxfordian of China ([4, 5, 27, 31, 34, 45, 46, 57, 58]), no certain preKimmeridgian representatives of this clade were known.”
- Authors
- Xu, X., & Zhang, F.
- Affiliations
- American Museum of Natural History (US)
- Chinese Academy of Sciences (CN)
- Corresponding author
- Xu, Xing
- Venue
- Naturwissenschaften
- Published
- 2005-02-01
- Volume
- 92
- Issue
- 4
- Pages
- 173-177
- ISSN
- 0028-1042 (ISSN-L)
- 1432-1904
- OpenAlex
- W2122468059
- Cited by
- 143
- References
- 0
- Citations by year
- 2026: 3 · 2025: 4 · 2024: 1 · 2023: 3 · 2022: 3 · 2021: 2 · 2020: 8 · 2019: 4 · 2018: 10 · 2017: 7 · 2016: 7 · 2015: 7 · 2014: 11 · 2013: 15 · 2012: 11
- FWCI
- 6.63
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Licence
- www.springer.com/tdm (tdm)
- Locations
- Die Naturwissenschaften (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Topics
- Physical Sciences › Earth and Planetary Sciences › Paleontology › Paleontology and Evolutionary Biology
- Life Sciences › Agricultural and Biological Sciences › Ecology, Evolution, Behavior and Systematics › Fossil Insects in Amber
- Physical Sciences › Earth and Planetary Sciences › Paleontology › Evolution and Paleontology Studies
- Keywords
- pennaceous feathers, dromaeosaurids, feathered dinosaurs
- MeSH terms
- Animals, China, Feathers, Fossils, Metatarsus, Paleontology, Phylogeny, Dinosaurs
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