TWO Chinese fossils, 120 to 150 million years old, are dinosaurs with
feathers rather than birds, researchers say in this week鈥檚 Nature (vol
393, p 753). This confirms that birds evolved from dinosaurs living on the
ground.
The team analysed 90 traits in fossils of Caudipteryx and Protarchaeopteryx.
They conclude that both are therapod dinosaurs. 鈥淣either of these animals flew,
even though they鈥檙e covered with feathers,鈥� says Mark Norell of the American
Museum of Natural History in New York.