Ludwig-Maximilians-University (LMU) analysts in Munich, Germany uncovered previously out-of-the-way features of Archaeopteryx plumage. This could recommend a utilization for quills that originate before their employment for flight.
Archaeopteryx existed around 150 million years back, throughout the late Jurassic period. Its name implies ancient wing, and the first fossil of its kind was found 150 years ago.
The newly found specimen in simply the eleventh Archaeopteryx fossil indicated by the study creators, and it has the best safeguarded plumage yet. It is continuously inspected by LMU Munich scientist Dr. Oliver Rauhut and his partners, and its condition takes into account it to be compared with other feathered dinosaurs.
“The new data make a significant contribution to the ongoing debate over the evolution of feathers and its relationship to avian flight,” the German university explained in a statement. “They also imply that the links between feather development and the origin of flight are probably much more complex than has been assumed up to now.”
“Since its first discovery in the 1860s, Archaeopteryx has been the object of many debates in relation to bird evolution, especially flight and feather evolution. There were debates if it was ground-dwelling or arboreal, if it could fly or not,” palaeontologist Dr Oliver Rauhut of the Bayerische Staatssammlung für Paläontologie und Geologie in Munich said in a statement.
In terms of their investigation of the plumage of the new fossil, the research team has been able to identify the taxonomical relationship between Archaeopteryx and other species of feathered dinosaur. The diversity in form and distribution of the feather tracts is particularly striking.
Scientist Christian Foth of the same foundation said a few researchers had recommended the vanes of its plumes were so frail it was not possible help flight, however the new fossil backs the idea of Archaeopteryx that was totally fit for flying.