Mysterious fossil may rewrite story of skin and feather evolution in reptiles

By Valentina Rossi, Postdoctoral researcher, Palaeontology, University College Cork
Maria McNamara, Professor, Palaeobiology, University College Cork

A delicate, innocuous little fossil reptile known as Mirasaura grauvogeli – “Grauvogel’s wonder reptile” – is forcing a rethink about the evolution of skin and its appendages such as feathers and hair.

These newly discovered fossils, from the Middle Triassic (247 million years old) Grès à Voltzia site in northeast France, preserve evidence of some of the most astonishing soft-tissue features described to date in ancient reptiles. We are two of the authors of a new paper on these finds, published…

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