Observatoire des droits humains (anglais seulement)

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

(Version anglaise seulement)

par 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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