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'''Sinosauropteryx''' (meaning "Chinese lizard-wing"^[1]) is the first and most primitive dinosaur found with the fossilized impressions of feathers. It lived in China during the early Cretaceous period and may have been a close relative of ''Compsognathus''. It was the first dinosaur genus discovered in the famous Liaoning Province. The largest known specimens are 1-1.20 meters (3 ft) in length, most of which was taken up by its extremely long tail. The remarkably well-preserved fossils show that ''Sinosauropteryx'' was covered with a furry down of very simple feathers - though some contention arose with an alternative interpretation of the filamentous impression as collagen fiber remains. These filaments consisted of a simple two-branched structure, roughly similar to the secondarily primitive feathers of the modern kiwi.
Three or four specimens are known: the holotype GMV 2123 (NIGP 127586), NIGP 127587, D 2141, and GMV 2124. The assignemt of the latter to ''S. prima'' is disputed.

Contents

Taxonomy

Diet

Controversy

References

Taxonomy

''Sinosauropteryx'' is important because it had feather-like structures, yet was not very closely related to the previous "first bird" ''Archaeopteryx''.^[2] There are many dinosaur families that were more closely related to ''Archaeopteryx'' than ''Sinosauropteryx'' was, including the deinonychosaurs, the oviraptosaurs and therizinosaurs. This indicates that feathers may have been a characteristic of many theropod dinosaurs, not just the obviously bird-like ones, making it possible that equally distant animals such as ''Ornitholestes'', ''Coelurus'', and ''Compsognathus'' had feathers as well, although their close proximity to the origin of feathers and the presence of scales on ''Juravenator'' and ''Tyrannosaurus'' make the distribution of feathers in primitive coelurosaurs extremely difficult to estimate accurately.
Most paleontologists do not consider ''Sinosauropteryx'' to be a bird, because phylogenetically, it lies far from the ''clade'' Aves, usually defined as ''Archaeopteryx'' + modern birds. The scientists who discovered and described ''Sinosauropteryx'', however, used a character-based (apomorphy) definition of the Class Aves, that is, any animal with feathers is a bird. They argued that the filamentous plumes of ''Sinosauropteryx'' represent true feathers with a rachis and barbs, and therefore that ''Sinosauropteryx'' should be considered a true bird.^[3] They classified it as belonging to a new biological order, 'Sinosauropterygiformes', family 'Sinosauropterygidae', within the subclass Sauriurae.

Diet

The specimen GMV 2124 was found with three mammal jaws in its stomach region. Hurum, Luo & Kielan-Jaworowska (2006) identified these jaws as belonging to ''Zhangheotherium'' (two jaws) and ''Sinobaatar'' (the third jaw), showing that these two mammals were part of the ''Sinosauropteryx'' diet. Interestingly, ''Zhangheotherium'' is known to have had a poisonous spur, like the modern platypus, showing that ''Sinosauropteryx'' fed on possibly poisonous mammals.^[4]
More recently, it was proposed that GMV 2124 does not belong to ''Sinosauropteryx'' but to a distinct (possibly closely related) species with proportionally longer tibiae and a shorter tail.

Controversy

Some researchers interpret the filamentous impression around ''Sinosauropteryx'' fossil as remains of collagen fiber, forming a frill on the back of the animal and underside of its tail.^[5]
This hypothesis denies ''Sinosauropteryx's claim of being the most basal known theropod genus with feathers and also questions the current theory of feather origins itself. It calls into question the theory that the first feathers evolved not for flight but for insulation, and that they made their first appearance in relatively basal dinosaur lineages that later evolved into modern birds. ^[6]
However, even if all of the known specimens of ''Sinosauropteryx'' that preserve feathery structures are invalidated, ''Dilong'', which is another basal, non - maniraptoran coelurosaur, is known to have simple filamentous protofeathers preserved with its fossils.
see also Feathered dinosaurs.

References

1. Ji, Q., and Ji, S. (1996). "On discovery of the earliest bird fossil in China and the origin of birds." ''Chinese Geology'' '10' (233): 30-33.
2. Chen, P., Dong, Z., Zhen, S. (1998). "An exceptionally well-preserved theropod dinosaur from the Yixian Formation of China." ''Nature'', '391', 147-152.
3. Ji, Q., and Ji, S. (1997). "Advances in ''Sinosauropteryx'' Research." ''Chinese Geology'', '7': 30-32.
4. Hurum, Jørn H.; Luo, Zhe-Xi & Kielan-Jaworowska, Zofia (2006): Were mammals originally venomous? ''Acta Palaeontologica Polonica'' '51'(1): 1–11.PDF fulltext
5. Lingham-Soliar, T ''et al'' (2007) ''Proc. R. Soc. Lond. B'' doi:10.1098/rspb.2007.0352.
6. http://www.nature.com/news/2007/070521/full/070521-6.html