text: Theropod dinosaurs, thought to be the direct ancestors of birds, sported birdlike feathers. But were they the only feathery dino group? Godefroit et al. describe an early neornithischian dinosaur with both early feathers and scales. This seemingly feathery nontheropod dinosaur shows that feathers were not unique to the ancestors of birds and may even have been quite widespread. 
   
   Abstract 
   
   Middle Jurassic to Early Cretaceous deposits from northeastern China have yielded varied theropod dinosaurs bearing feathers. Filamentous integumentary structures have also been described in ornithischian dinosaurs, but whether these filaments can be regarded as part of the evolutionary lineage toward feathers remains controversial. Here we describe a new basal neornithischian dinosaur from the Jurassic of Siberia with small scales around the distal hindlimb, larger imbricated scales around the tail, monofilaments around the head and the thorax, and more complex featherlike structures around the humerus, the femur, and the tibia. The discovery of these branched integumentary structures outside theropods suggests that featherlike structures coexisted with scales and were potentially widespread among the entire dinosaur clade; feathers may thus have been present in the earliest dinosaurs. ||||| Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption Kulindadromeus zabaikalicus' discovery in Siberia challenges our understanding of how dinosaurs evolved, as Pallab Ghosh reports (UK users only) 
   
   All dinosaurs were covered with feathers or had the potential to grow feathers, a study suggests. 
   
   The discovery of 150-million-year-old fossils in Siberia indicates that feathers were much more widespread among dinosaurs than previously thought. 
   
   The find "has completely changed our vision of dinosaurs", the lead researcher told BBC News. 
   
   The details have been published in the journal Science. 
   
   It is a big discovery. It has completely changed our vision of dinosaurs Dr Pascal Godefroit, Royal Belgian Institute of Natural Sciences 
   
   The creature, called Kulindadromeus zabaikalicus, was about 1m long, with a short snout, long hind legs, short arms, and five strong fingers. 
   
   Its teeth show clear adaptations for chewing plants. 
   
   Until now, fossilised evidence of feathery dinosaurs has come from China and from a meat eating group called theropods. 
   
   The latest discovery, in Russia, is from a completely separate group of plant-eating dinosaurs called ornithischians - which account for half of all dinosaurs. 
   
   Fluffy covering 
   
   The find takes the origin of feathers millions of years further back in time than had previously been thought, said Dr Pascal Godefroit of the Royal Belgian Institute of Natural Sciences in Brussels, Belgium, who led the research. 
   
   Image copyright Th.Hubin Image caption Belgian and Russian researchers discovered an area filled with ancient dinosaur bones in Kulinda, south eastern Siberia 
   
   "It was a big surprise," he said. 
   
   Instead of thinking of dinosaurs as dry, scary scaly creatures a lot of them actually had a fluffy, downy covering like feathers on a chick Dr Maria McNamara, Cork University 
   
   "The fact that feathers have now been discovered in two distinct groups, theropods in China and ornithischians in Russia means that the common ancestor of these species which might have existed 220 million years ago also probably had feathers." 
   
   The discovery has "completely changed our vision of dinosaurs", he added. 
   
   "Instead of thinking of dinosaurs as dry, scary scaly creatures a lot of them actually had a fluffy, downy covering like feathers on a chick," said co-researcher Dr Maria McNamara of Cork University in Ireland. 
   
   Alternative view 
   
   So do all the pictures of dinosaurs in children's books need to be redrawn to make creatures like Triceratops, Stegosaurus, Tyrannosaurus rex and the vicious Velociraptor, fluffier and cuter? 
   
   Image copyright Pascale Golinvaux/RBINS/Science Image caption The researchers believe the dark areas on this dinosaur fossil are remains of the earliest feathers 
   
   Perhaps a little bit, according to Professor Mike Benton, of Bristol University, who was also involved in the work. 
   
   "Our research doesn't mean that all dinosaurs had feathers, especially as adults," he told BBC News. 
   
   "Some will have had feathers as young animals and kept them throughout their lives. Others may have lost feathers as they grew up, and became large enough not to need them, or replaced feathers with scales or relied on bony plates in the skin for protection." 
   
   The key point is that dinosaurs were all initially feathered and warm blooded, confirmation of an idea that has prevailed for years, he said. 
   
   "Feathers were used first for insulation and signalling; they only later became adapted for flight." 
   
   But Dr Paul Barrett of the Natural History Museum in London, has doubts. 
   
   "Most feathers have a branching structure," he told BBC News. 
   
   "Instead these look like little streamers coming from a central plate. No bird has that structure in any part of its plumage and none of the developmental models that biologists use to understand the evolution of feathers includes a stage that has anything like that kind of anatomy." 
   
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target: – Dinosaurs were scaly old things, right? Not so much, apparently. A Science study of 150-million-year-old fossils uncovered in Siberia is playing a big role in flipping that perception on its head, suggesting that nearly all dinosaurs actually sprouted feathers. At least five species of feathered dinosaurs have turned up in China over the last 20 years, all belonging to the theropod group of raptors. The latest fossils, however, come from a two-legged dinosaur in the ornithischian group, which National Geographic says accounts for about half of all dinosaurs. "Probably that means the common ancestor of all dinosaurs had feathers," the study author says. The fossils have "completely changed our vision of dinosaurs," he adds, per the BBC. A paleontologist not involved with the study calls it "fantastic" and says it revealed three types of feather imprints different from those of other feathered dinosaurs as well as those of modern birds: "I don't know" why they had feathers, he says. "These animals couldn't fly, that's all we can tell you." (Read about a dinosaur that did fly—with four wings.)