It is the first ever dinosaur to be unearthed with its body covering intact. The researchers were stunned to find that the body was covered in fine, feather-like filaments. The find may ruffle some feathers in the paleontology community, where a debate continues to rage, on the link, or lack of link between dinosaurs and birds. The new discovery suggests that feathers preceded not only birds, but flight as well. This fossil radically modifies our vision of these extinct animal.
Dromaeosaurs are part of the theropod group of dinosaurs.
There has been a consensus among many, but not all, paleontologists, that the striking number of anomatic similarities between theropods and modern birds suggests that this is the most likely link between dinosaurs and the bird world. The fact that reptiles have scales, which are produced by tissues similar to feathers, and that birds have scales on their feet has also not been overlooked. Finally, it is hard to miss the most obvious similarity of all, the fact that both lay eggs. This is not the first example of feather-like structures to be discovered at the Yixian Formation fossil beds. During the past five years many fragments have been unearthed.