SUBSCRIBE VIA RSS
Taphovenatrix: Dinosaur Taphonomy PhD
  • News and Updates
  • About
  • Research
    • Publications & Outreach
    • Current Research
    • Past Research

Feathery ornithomimus had bare legs

3/11/2015

3 Comments

 
New feathery evidence for North American dinosaurs: it appears that Ornithomimus was covered with feathers everywhere except for its lower legs.
Picture
An artists impression of Ornithomimus - note the lack of feathers on the hind limb, akin to modern day ostriches. Image from van der Reest et al (2015), reconstruction by Julius Csotonyi.
What interested me about this paper by van der Reest et al (2015) was the lack of leg feathers found.

Why?

If this feathery absence isn't taphonomic (i.e. leg feathers were present in life, but not preserved with the fossil), then perhaps their absence paves the way for another type of leg covering... perhaps, podotheca?

I've written about podotheca - the scales on the lower leg and foot seen in modern birds and reptiles - a couple of times on this blog (both on hypothesised podotheca in a coelurosaurian theropod fossil, and preserved podotheca impressions with a non-coelurosaurian theropod fossil).

In those prior studies, podotheca were proposed to be present in not only the lineage that led to modern day birds (coelurosaurs), but also theropod lineages that do not include modern birds (non-coelurosaurs). As Ornithomimus is a coelurosaur, the presence of podotheca would at least bolster the idea that this feature was present in the ancestors of modern birds.

The study by van der Reest et al (2015) doesn't hypothesise about whether there was a podotheca-like covering on the hind limbs of Ornithomimus. But it does point out the presence of both feathers across the body and skin webs attached to the upper leg, which are features also seen in modern day birds.

They do, however, suggest that the lack of feathers on the lower legs may be related to thermoregulation - a way for the animal to keep cool - which has been noted as the reason why modern ostriches, emus, and cassowaries have sparse or no leg and neck plumage.

If Ornithomimus did have podotheca on its hind limbs, the artist's reconstruction in the paper, and shown above, indicates what it would have looked like in life. In any case, let's hope for more solid evidence of podotheca in future Ornithomimus specimens.
​
References
van der Reest, A. J., Wolfe, A. P., Currie, P. J. 2015. A densely feathered ornithomimid (Dinosauria: Theropoda) from the Upper Cretaceous Dinosaur Park Formation, Alberta, Canada. Cretaceous Research, 58: 108–117.
3 Comments
Mason Heiserman link
30/1/2016 07:44:38 pm

This is an awesome article. As cool as ornithomimosaurs are, I was wondering if you would write about some oviraptorosaurs. Lately they have been my favorite dinosaurs to read about. Also, good luck with your PhD!

Reply
Caitlin Syme link
25/2/2016 05:09:00 pm

I'm glad you enjoyed it!
Oviraptorosaurs are pretty cool, I'll see if I can dig up some new/interesting information about their taphonomy to write about.
And thanks for the PhD luck, it's getting a little busy hence my lack of blogging.

Reply
Mason Heiserman link
25/2/2016 06:18:17 pm

I appreciate you taking my suggestion into consideration, so thank you. And no worries. I will be starting my 12 year path to the holy doctorate in six months, so my blog is going to experience its own share of hiatuses.




Leave a Reply.

    About the author

    Dr Caitlin Syme is a palaeontologist studying the taphonomy (preservation state) of fossil non-avian dinosaurs, crocodiles and fish from the Winton Formation, Queensland, Australia. Think forensic science or CSI for fossils, and you're on the right track!

    Posts on this blog focus mainly on vertebrate palaeontology and taphonomy, as well early career researcher (ERC) productivity tips and insights.


    TWEETS

    Tweets by @taphovenatrix

    Search website

    Loading

    Blog topics

    All
    Data Management
    Dinosaur Comics
    Documentary
    Fossil ReadMe
    Funny
    Interesting Research
    News Articles
    Obscure D.o.t.W
    Palaeo Pondering
    Personal
    Ph.D.
    Pseudoscience
    Technology
    T Rex Trying


    Blogroll

    Chinleana
    DinoGoss
    Dinosaurpalaeo
    Dinosaur Tracking
    Love in the Time ofChasmosaurs
    Not Exactly Rocket- Science
    Palaeoblog
    Pharyngula
    PhD Comics
    Phenomena: Laelaps
    Prerogative of Harlots
    Pseudoplocephalus
    SV-POW!
    Tetrapod Zoology
    The Integrative Paleontologists
    The Mammoth Prairie
    The Professor Is In
    UQ Palaeo Blog

    Follow me!

    Academia.edu
    Mendeley
    ResearchGate

    Who's been visiting?


    Archives

    February 2018
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    November 2016
    September 2016
    April 2016
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    January 2015
    November 2014
    October 2014
    August 2014
    July 2014
    June 2014
    May 2014
    April 2014
    March 2014
    February 2014
    January 2014
    December 2013
    November 2013
    October 2013
    September 2013
    August 2013
    July 2013
    May 2013
    April 2013
    March 2013
    February 2013
    January 2013
    December 2012
    November 2012
    October 2012
    September 2012
    August 2012
    July 2012
    June 2012
    May 2012
    April 2012
    March 2012
    February 2012
    January 2012
    December 2011
    November 2011
    October 2011
    September 2011


    Creative Commons License
    This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.

Powered by Create your own unique website with customizable templates.