JERUSALEM, Dec. 16 (Xinhua) -- Some dinosaurs that lived 160 million years ago had feathers but could not fly, a study by Tel Aviv University released Tuesday suggests, showing that the evolution of flight was more complex than previously thought.
Researchers from China, Israel, and the United States studied fossils of Anchiornis, a small dinosaur from eastern China. By examining how the dinosaurs' feathers grew and were replaced, they found irregular patterns unlike the precise feather replacement needed for flight. This indicates that Anchiornis likely stayed on the ground.
Published in the journal Nature Communications Biology, the study also suggests that some species may have developed the ability to fly and later lost it as environments changed, a phenomenon similar to that of modern flightless birds, such as ostriches and penguins.
The findings challenge the idea that feathers and wings evolved only for flight. Instead, the ability to fly may have appeared and disappeared across different dinosaur lineages.
Anchiornis belonged to the Pennaraptora group, which appeared about 175 million years ago. Although many dinosaurs grew feathers for warmth after diverging from reptiles around 240 million years ago, this study confirms that feathers did not automatically mean a dinosaur could fly.
The research was led by Tel Aviv University's Steinhardt Museum of Natural History and Linyi University in China. ■
