Exceptional dinosaur fossils show ontogenetic development of early feathers

Two exceptionally well-preserved specimens of the feathered dinosaur Similicaudipteryx, preserved at different stages of development, show that the morphology of dinosaur feathers changed dramatically as the animals matured. In addition, the morphology of feathers in dinosaurs was much more varied than one would expect from what we know of feathers in extant birds. Study of two specimens of the feathered dinosaur Similicaudipteryx shows that the...