Feather, Flame Fractals

Several dinosaurs have been discovered with feathers on their limbs that would not have functioned for flight. One theory is that feathers originally developed on dinosaurs as a means of insulation; those small dinosaurs that then grew longer feathers may have found them helpful in gliding, which would have begun the evolutionary process that resulted in some proto-birds like Archaeopteryx and Microraptor zhaoianus. Other dinosaurs discovered with feathers include Pedopenna daohugouensis, Sinosauropteryx, and Dilong paradoxus, a tyrannosauroid which is 60 to 70 million years older than Tyrannosaurus rex. Currently the question is not whether birds are dinosaurs, but whether they are deinonychosaurians or are dromaeosaurids. It has been suggested that Pedopenna is older than Archaeopteryx, however, their age remains doubted by some experts.

 
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