Dinosaur feathers reveal traces of ancient proteins
Paleontologists at University College Cork (UCC) in Ireland have discovered X-ray evidence of proteins in fossil feathers that sheds new light on feather evolution.
Previous studies suggested that ancient feathers had a different composition to the feathers of birds today. The new research, however, reveals that the protein composition of modern-day feathers was also present in the feathers of dinosaurs and early birds, confirming that the chemistry of feathers originated much earlier than previously thought.
The research, published today in Nature Ecology and Evolution, was led by paleontologists Dr. Tiffany Slater and Prof. Maria McNamara of UCC's School of Biological, Earth, and Environmental Science, who teamed with scientists based at Linyi University (China) and the Stanford Synchrotron Radiation Lightsource (U.S.).
The team analyzed 125-million-year-old feathers from the dinosaur Sinornithosaurus and the early bird Confuciusornis from China, plus a 50-million-year-old feather from the U.S..
"It's really exciting to discover new similarities between dinosaurs and birds," Dr. Slater says. "To do this, we developed a new method to detect traces of ancient feather proteins. Using X-rays and infrared light we found that feathers from the dinosaur Sinornithosaurus contained lots of beta-proteins, just like feathers of birds today."
A graphical abstract based on paper by Slater et al., 2003. Credit: Science Graphic Design
Isolated fossil feather from the Green River Formation (ca. 50 million years old, USA). Specimen held in the Yale University Peabody Museum of Natural History. Scale bar indicates 100 mm. Credit: Dr Tiffany Slater