Feathers
The first Similicaudipteryx specimen lacked traces of feathers, but He and colleagues speculated that they were probably present based on its pygostyle, the anchor point of long tail feathers (rectrices) in modern birds. In 2010, two new specimens were described, both of which preserved feather traces. These specimens (both juveniles, though one closer to maturity than the other) showed that the feathers were similar to the related Caudipteryx, with long (symmetrical) vaned feathers on the hand and tail, and the rest of the body covered in simpler, downy feathers.
Read more about this topic: Similicaudipteryx, Description
Famous quotes containing the word feathers:
“How easily it falls, how easily I let drift
On the surface of morning feathers of self-reproach:
How easily I disperse the scolding of snow.”
—Philip Larkin (1922–1986)
“The feathers of the willow
Are half of them grown yellow
Above the swelling stream;
And ragged are the bushes,
And rusty now the rushes,
And wild the clouded gleam.”
—Richard Watson Dixon (1833–1900)
“Its shrill scream seems yet to linger in its throat, and the roar of the sea in its wings. There is the tyranny of Jove in its claws, and his wrath in the erectile feathers of the head and neck. It reminds me of the Argonautic expedition, and would inspire the dullest to take flight over Parnassus.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)