Longisquama was found in Kyrgyzstan, in central Asia, in 1969 and was stored for years in a drawer in Moscow. It provoked little interest until 1998, when it was included in a traveling exhibition. Two of the tour stops were the University of Kansas Museum of Natural History and Crown Center. Jones and Ruben, paleontologists at Oregon State University, traveled to Kansas City to see the Longisquama. Only hair and feathers grow out of follicles.
Scales grow in long sheets.
They wanted a closer look, and Crown Center officials let the two examine the fossil after the exhibition had closed. We set up a table there with a microscope from the University of Kansas and all our photo equipment. That first glimpse, Jones said, was something special. That's where we all came together. Jones said that the feathers along the back of Longisquama are fully developed and very birdlike.