#feitianius

[albertonykus]

Added Yuanchuavis to the lineup of feathered dinosaur tails. This is another one for which I'd be tempted to redraw the entire thing if I were to update it again...

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[a-dinosaur-a-day]

Feitianius paradisi

By Scott Reid on @drawingwithdinosaurs

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Name: Feitianius paradisi

Name Meaning: Paradise’s Feitian 

First Described: 2015

Described By: O’Connor et al. 

Classification: Dinosauria, Theropoda, Neotheropoda, Averostra, Tetanurae, Orionides, Avetheropoda, Coelurosauria, Tyrannoraptora, Maniraptoriformes, Maniraptora, Pennaraptora, Paraves, Eumaniraptora, Averaptora, Avialae, Euavialae, Avebrevicauda, Pygostylia, Ornithothoraces, Enantiornithes

Feitianius is a recently described Opposite Bird from the Xiagou Formation of China, living in the Aptian age of the Early Cretaceous, about 124 to 120 million years ago. It is known from an incomplete skeleton on a slab, including some preservation of the feathers. It was a small bird, only known from the latter half of the skeleton, though it appears to have had long legs, long claws and extensive tail feathering. The tail was similar to that of modern birds that are sexually dimorphic indicating that the extensive tail feathers of Feitianius were probably used for display of some sort, probably for finding mates in its species. It probably also didn’t fly often, given that these extensive tail feathers would have quite literally got in the way of aerodynamic movement. 

Source: 

O’Connor, J. K., D. Q. Li, M. C. Lamanna, M. Wang, J. D. Harris, J. Atterholt, H. L. You. 2015. A new Early Cretaceous enantiornithine (Aves, Ornithothoraces) from northwestern China with elaborate tail ornamentation. Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology 36 (1): e1054035. 

Shout out goes to @ladyamesindy!

[albertonykus]

Diversity of tail feathering in Mesozoic pennaraptorans, updated with Wulong (and a few other edits).

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