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How China helped prove once and for all that dinosaurs had feathers
- The Post sat down with Michael Pittman, a palaeontologist at the University of Hong Kong, to learn about feathered dinosaurs
- He explains the importance of China in one of our biggest shifts in how we think about dinosaurs
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For people who love dinosaurs, one of the most fun facts to tell ourselves is that the beautiful beasts that once roamed earth never completely went away; we just call them birds.
While that statement lacks any degree of subtlety, it is supported by another fact that has emerged over the last 25 years: many species of dinosaurs had feathers, including non-avian species.
The first non-avian dinosaur with feathers, called the Sinosauropteryx prima, was discovered in China in 1996.
According to Michael Pittman, a palaeontologist at the University of Hong Kong, the Chinese finds have become the most important contributor to our understanding of how feathers, and the dinosaurs that adorned them, developed.
“There have been discoveries from other countries, but if you got rid of the Chinese fossils and were left with the rest, the piecing together of the story would have only happened in the past 10 years.”
The Post sat down with Pittman, who is an expert in the development of flight, to learn more about feathered dinosaurs, birds and China’s role in our understanding of our prehistoric ancestors.
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