Feathered, Not Scaly

Nearly every dinosaur picture from your childhood got one thing wrong. Fossils now show that many dinosaurs — including close relatives of Tyrannosaurus rex — were covered in feathers, not bare reptile scales. Some wore plumage as showy as a peacock's.

The Feather Revolution

In 1996, Chinese farmers found Sinosauropteryx, the first clearly feathered non-avian dinosaur fossil. It was small, meat-eating, and covered in fuzzy filaments.

That find blew open dinosaur science. Feathers were no longer just a bird feature; they were part of dinosaur evolution before birds took flight.