The Maniraptoran Alphabet (Part 1)

This past week I researched and illustrated a dinosaur alphabet book! I researched and illustrated 26 maniraptorans for the project, specifically limiting myself to species that went extinct before the Eocene to exclude modern birds. This project was a huge amount of fun for me and I'm very proud of the result, so I hope you all enjoy them too! Please look forward to the rest of the series, which I'll be posting over the course of the coming week or so.

[ A 50-million-year-old fossilised feather from the Green River Formation in Wyoming. Photo by Tiffany Slater. ]

"Feathers from modern-day birds have more in common with dinosaur feathers than experts previously thought and have a similar protein composition, a new X-ray analysis reveals. The discovery offers new insight into the evolution of feathers over hundreds of millions of years. Paleontologists examined feathers from three ancient animals, including a 125 million-year-old nonavian dinosaur called Sinornithosaurus found in China; a 125 million-year-old early bird, also from China, known as Confuciusornis; and an unspecified species that lived in what is now the Green River Formation in Wyoming 50 million years ago, according to a study published Sept. 21 in the journal Nature Ecology and Evolution. After conducting X-ray and infrared light analyses on the ancient feathers, the researchers detected traces of corneous beta-proteins (CBPs), formerly known as beta-keratins, which are proteins necessary for strengthening feathers for flight. The international team of researchers then examined feathers from today's birds, such as zebra finches (Taeniopygia) and noticed that they contained a similar chemical structure."

Read more: "125 million-year-old dinosaur feathers were remarkably similar to modern bird feathers, analysis reveals" by Jennifer Nalewicki.

Who is flashiest tailed birb group??? vote now on phones!!!

Early Cretaceous Jiufotang Formation

An illustration sketched with a ballpoint pen during my breaks at work (we've had a couple of slow days recently).

Based on some of the vertebrate fossils known from the Jiufotang Formation in China's Liaoning Province.

Foreground: several generic caterpillars, two Microraptor specimens, and a bird based on Longipteryx.

Background: one Confuciusornis, more Longipteryx-based birds, some generic titanosaurs.

Vintage Sale..! The Old New Chinese Revolution originals are up for auction!

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Caudipteryx, Archaeopteryx, and Confuciusornis reconstructions in front of their fossils.

Confuciusornis shifan Wang et al., 2022 (new species)

(Type specimen of Confuciusornis shifan [scale bars = 2 cm], from Wang et al., 2022)

Meaning of name: shifan = paragon of teachers [in Chinese, referencing Confucius and the 70th anniversary of Shenyang Normal University]

Age: Early Cretaceous (Aptian), about 119 million years ago

Where found: Jiufotang Formation, Liaoning, China

How much is known: Nearly complete skeleton of one individual.

Notes: C. shifan was a confuciusornithiform, a group of bird-like, flying dinosaurs from the Early Cretaceous. Many other species in the genus Confuciusornis have been named, though only C. sanctus (the type species) and C. dui are widely accepted as valid.

Estimated as having weighed about 175 g, C. shifan was smaller than most other confuciusornithiforms (including the other species of Confuciusornis), but examination of the microscopic structure of its bones indicates that the type specimen had been an adult when it died. An unusual feature of C. shifan is that it had an extra bone in its palm that would have connected to the thumb. Small “additional” bones like this tend to evolve in parts of the skeleton that experience high stress. Combined with well-developed muscle attachment surfaces on its wing bones, this may indicate that C. shifan had stronger flight capabilities than other confuciusornithiforms. In particular, the proportions of its wings relative to its body size suggest that it was adapted to short-distance but highly maneuverable flights, similar to many small, forest-dwelling birds today.

Reference: Wang, R., D. Hu, M. Zhang, S. Wang, Q. Zhao, C. Sullivan, and X. Xu. 2022. A new confuciusornithid bird with a secondary epiphyseal ossification reveals phylogenetic changes in confuciusornithid flight mode. Communications Biology 5: 1398. doi: 10.1038/s42003-022-04316-6

paleo shower thought: depending on your definition of bird, birds existed before tyrannosaurus rex did.

learning about paleobiology is so fun because it means that on the bus i will be reading and in one second overwhelmed with a feather’s brush of awareness of the vast and inky gulfs of time in which the world is subsumed and then in the next second overwhelmed with blinding petulant fury that there is no time machine i can get in to see the eocene antarctic coastal temperate rainforest full of gigantic penguins

Results from the #JurassicLeft #paleostream! Vectipelta, Confuciusornis (being intersex), Acrocanthosaurus and some gay Torosaurus.

Happy #FossilFriday! We got to spend the afternoon with paleontologist Cary Woodruff and check out @frostscience (such a cool museum and they have an awesome Yutyrannus going after Confuciusornis on display, among many, many other cool things)

I have a finally have a banner!

On this banner we have some of my favourite prehistoric animals:

Microraptor, Tanystropheus, Spinosaurus, Dilophosaurus, Confuciusornis, Sinosauropterix, Dreadnoughtus, Yi qi, tapejara and cryodrakon.

Confuciusornis Replica

trick or treat! (dressed as a microraptor)

Confuciusornis!

I know the bracket is already going, but I just gotta tell you about this beauty.

Confuciusornis, a species of bird from the Cretaceous period, roughly 119mya.

Very elegant. The males had two long plumes on their tail like some weird bird of paradise.

They were probably blue and gold, which is a lovely palette.

One of the most common birds in their habitat at the time, apparently.

Still had claws on their wings, but also a full beak!

Similar to the songbirds of today, but probably not a true songbird.

I'd show you a pic if I could, but asks apparently don't allow it.

Have fun looking them up :3

Woah!! They have cool little tail feathers! I don’t know if they’d count because they’re not in Aves though… who knows maybe I’ll do a “prehistoric bird” bracket after this one where we don’t have to be constrained by Aves.

The Deed is Done! Dinosaur rEvolution is a resounding success at the Horniman Museum!

Dinosaurs at the Horniman Museum like you have never seen them before!

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