Scientists puzzled by newly found dinosaur fossils
Dinosaur fossils recently discovered in northeast China's Liaoning province have bewildered scientists about the evolutionary development of feathers.
The sub-adult Tianyulong Confuciusi, which was covered with feather-like structures, dates back to the early Cretacious Period(144-99 million years ago), when the first dinosaurs emerged - long before anything like feathers had been believed to have started developing.
And the find, described in the journal Nature, presents another stumper: "This order of dinosaur was never supposed to have had anything like feathers," Chinese Academy of Geological Sciences paleontologist You Hailu was quoted by Thursday's China Daily as saying.
