Scales, feathers and dinosaurs

A fossil dinosaur that ‘nests’ with feathered relations in the dinosaur phylogenetic tree did not, it seems, have feathers. The discovery will encourage a re-evaluation of feather evolution. Small, Late Jurassic carnivorous dinosaurs are rare worldwide, and in Europe are represented by just two poorly preserved Compsognathus skeletons. Göhlich and Chiappe describe a previously unknown theropod which, like Compsognathus and most specimens of...