German paleontologists from the The Stuttgart State Museum of Natural History became interested in an unusual reptile that lived in the Triassic period about 200-250 million years ago and had a strange crest on its back, consisting of bones rather than scales or feathers.
The fossils of this 247 million-year-old extinct creature immediately attracted the attention of scientists. A large process on the back at first glance resembles a a ruffle of overlapping feathers. However, this process is much older than the feathers and it does not contain any branches, indicating the presence of plume. This complex structure also lacks bone spikes, similar to those that could be seen у of later dinosaurs, such as the spinosaurus.
«It has to be something new. Prior to our discovery, complex skin growths were unique to mammals, birds, and their closest relatives, and were mostly in the form of feathers and hair. Now we have another, completely different type of complex limb that belongs to a very early reptile», — the paleontologist notes Stefan Spiekman.
Long before the dinosaurs had the plumage, some earlier reptiles seem to have already formed a genetic toolkit for the formation of complex limbs. The dorsal crests discovered by Spickman and his colleagues are something new and do not yet have a definitive name.
In their study, german scientists call these ridges skin growths, but they do not actually look like reptilian skin. According to Spiekman, these growths may be composed of keratin, similar to nails, hair, scales, or claws. However, further analysis is needed to confirm this assumption.
In total, Spiekman and his colleagues studied more than 80 fossilized growths recently donated to the State Museum of Natural History in Stuttgart. The vast majority had lost their skeletons; only one of the fossils had the bird skull of a small ancient reptile.
An extinct creature called Mirasaura grauvogeli. Technically, this reptile species belongs to the Drepanosaurus — a small early reptile that lived in trees and hunted insects with claw-like claws Velociraptor.
«The myrosaurus had an alternative to feathers at an early stage of Earth’s history, long before the dinosaurs appeared. We did not expect this, and it will stimulate discussions and research», — the paleontologist said Rainer Schoch.
The exact purpose of this growth on the myrosaur’s back remains unknown. It is more likely that it played a role in visual communication, for example, to deter predators or intraspecific signaling.
Paleontologists have discovered that the fossils. The best preserved Mirasaura grauvogeli contain traces of melanosomes — organelles inside pigment cells. Their geometry is the same with melanosomes that color feathers, but not with those found in reptile skin or mammalian fur.
«Mirasaura really shows how amazing evolution can be, and how much we can still learn from paleontology. From genetics and developmental biology, we already knew that most of the pathways for feather, hair, and scale formation are common to mammals, reptiles, and birds. Now, with the advent of Mirasaura we can say that such complex structures did indeed exist in other animals», — said Stefan Spiekman.
The results of the study are published in the journal Nature
Source: Science Alert
Spelling error report
The following text will be sent to our editors: