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An Encyclopedia of Chinese Dinosaurs |
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Pedopenna daohugouensis
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A feathered Jurassic maniraptoran dinosaur from Nei Mongol
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Pedopenna daohugouensis is the first feathered Jurassic maniraptoran dinosaur from China. It has long pennaceous feathers on the feet. This suggests that such morphology might represent a primitive adaptation close to the theropod¨Cbird transition, and provides strong evidence in support of the arboreal¨Cgliding hypothesis for the origin of bird flight.

The holotype of Pedopenna daohugouensis (Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology & Paleoanthropology, Beijing V12721): photograph (a) and line-drawing (b) of the partial leg and associated feathers, photograph (c) and line-drawing (d) of the feathers attached to the distal metatarsals showing the rachis and the parallel barbs. Inset in b indicates the positions of c and d. Scale bar=10 mm. (after Xu and Zhang, 2005).

A simplified cladogram showing the phylogenetic position of P. daohugouensis (after Xu and Zhang, 2005).
Xu, Xing and Zhang, Fu-cheng. 2005. A new maniraptoran dinosaur from China with long feathers on the metatarsus. Naturwissenschaften DOI 10.1007/s00114-004-0604-y. |
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