I adore fuzzy, feathered dinosaurs. No surprise there. I’ve written about plumage-covered dinosaurs quite a bit this past year, my enthusiasm fueled by three discoveries that tested some paleo predictions and may change the way we restore dinosaurs in the flesh.

The fact that many dinosaurs were covered in various sorts of fuzz and feathers isn’t news. Since 1996, a steady flow of fossils from China and elsewhere have shown that various dinosaurs had some kind of accessory “integument.” We’re already well past the initial “Whoa! Dinosaurs had feathers?” moment, but each discovery tells us a little bit more about the evolution