Dinosaur Feathers Changed With Age

Rapid and bizarre switches suggest dinos had birds beat for plumage diversity.

Farmers in northeastern China have unearthed two roughly 125-million-year-old specimens of the dinosaur Similicaudipteryx, a member of the group called the oviraptorosaurs, which are believed to be ancestors of birds.

(See the first pictures of "true color" feathered dinosaurs.)

The species, most likely a plant-eater, was first described in 2008. It had robust jaws similar to those of other oviraptorosaurs, but with two unusually large buck teeth.

The two new fossils belong to a pigeon-size juvenile dinosaur thought to be just a year or two old and a three- to four-year-old duck-size youth.

The younger animal's fossil included short ribbonlike feathers. On its tail, each feather was just 1.6 inches (4

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