When paleontologists began discovering feathery dinosaurs during the 1990s, every find was a tantalizing glimpse at possibilities that researchers had based on bone. Now, almost seventeen years since the Sinosauropteryx splash, fluffy dinosaurs seem almost mundane. Finding yet another small, bird-like, fuzzy dinosaur doesn’t spur the same excitement that earlier discoveries did. This is not to say that these new finds are not important. Quite the contrary. With every new feathered dinosaur named, paleontologists uncover a little more context for ongoing discussions about the evolution of flight, feathers, and birds. The latest fluffy dinosaur to join the ranks – Eosinopteryx brevipenna.

Found by a commercial collector in the roughly 161 million year old stone