pterosaur Tubandactylus Imperator He wore a headdress of feathers on the top of his head, which was probably colored. This finding supports the assumption that feathers originally had a signaling function. Experts led by Aude Cincotta of University College Cork in Ireland have identified the minute structures in a 115-million-year-old pterosaur fossil found in Brazil. As the team says in Nature., The existing feathers contain pigment granules of different shape. In modern birds, the shape of these melanosomes correlates with their color. This indicates that color was important for early feather function, According to a press release from University College Cork.
While it has been known for years that dinosaurs wore feathers, it remains unclear whether closely related dinosaurs also had feathers. They used membranous wings to fly, each stretched between an extended finger and the side of the body. However, their bodies were covered in a type of fur made of threads, which some experts have identified as simple feathers – but this is debatable. at Tubandactylus Imperator However, the identified structures are regularly branched and in this respect resemble the plumage of modern birds, so there is some certainty that they were in fact comparable structures.
The wingspan of a pterosaur was about five meters, and above all, one for the genus Topandactylus typical vertex. Experts believe that this emblem, decorated with dots and colored patterns on some well-preserved fossils, serves the function of transmitting signals.
Similar to the horns or feathers in animals living today, they may have played a role in mating behaviour. The feathers Cincotta’s team found covered the back of the top of the head to the back of the neck. Therefore, experts assume that they contributed to the signaling function. It can be said that the simpler, threadlike feathers that covered the animal’s body insulated the animal from the cold.
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