An international grouping of researchers have discovered that some dinosaur shed their skin not like reptilian in one or a few go , but in tiny chip , just like mammals and modern birds do . They were able to solve this out via the breakthrough that square dinosaur also had dandruff .
The finding come from 125 - million - year - old specimens of feather dinosaur and other birds . The squad used a powerful electron microscope to study the more minute features of these fossilized animals . They found that the dandruff cells are signally similar to what is see today in birds . Their breakthrough is reported in the journalNature Communications .
" The fossil cells are preserved with incredible detail – mighty down to the level of nanoscale keratin filament , " lead author Dr Maria McNamara , from the University College Cork , said in astatement . " What ’s singular is that the fossil dandruff is almost very to that in modern shuttlecock – even the coiling twisting of private fiber is still seeable . "
The dandruff from the feathered dinosaurs – Microraptor , Beipiaosaurus , andSinornithosaurus – was made of corneocytes , just like human dandruff . agree to the research worker , this discovery helps us date the organic evolution of modern cutis features to around the Middle Jurassic when these animals endure .
" There was a burst of development of feathered dinosaurs and birds at this time , and it ’s exciting to see evidence that the tegument of early birds and dinosaurs was evolve apace in response to bear plumage , " Dr McNamara explained .
“ It ’s strange to be able to study the skin of a dinosaur , and the fact this is dandruff show the dinosaur was not shedding its whole cutis like a modern lizard or Snake River but losing skin fragment from between its feathers , ” co - author Professor Mike Benton , from the University of Bristol , added .
mod birds have fatty corneocytes with loosely packed keratin . The way of life they are structure avail the chick chill down when fly for long stretches of time . The dinos ' corneocytes , however , were packed with ceratin . This suggest they did n’t get as hot as modern birds , likely because they were not accommodate for powered flight , at least for long periods at a time .
