Mike Benton

5 results

Pterosaurs, flying reptiles that lived side by side with dinosaurs, had at least four types of feathers.
Study of flying reptile sheds light on origin of feathers

Scientists from University College Cork (UCC) have discovered that pterosaurs had four kinds of feathers, shifting the origin of feathers back by 70 m(...)

Scientists will have to rethink their theories on what colours dinosaurs were, following a study at UCC. File photograph: Getty Images
Colours of dinosaurs thrown into doubt by new UCC study

Scientists may have to rethink their theories on what colours dinosaurs were, following a study at University College Cork (UCC). Many scientists had(...)

Dr Maria McNamara of UCC: “What’s remarkable is that the fossil dandruff is almost identical to that in modern birds.” Photograph: John Sheehan
Familiar problem for feathered forebears: Dinosaurs had dandruff too

UCC palaeontologists have discovered 125 million-year-old dandruff preserved among the plumage of feathered dinosaurs and early birds – offering the f(...)

Kulindadromeus: An example of a plant-eating dinosaur with feathers and scales
How colourful and feathery were the dinosaurs?

Jurassic Park (1993) featured Velociraptors hunting park visitors, depicting them as wily lizard-like predators. Time and science, however, have been (...)

A pregnant Dinocephalosaurus catching a fish. Photograph: Dinghua Yang and Jun Liu/AFP/Nature Publishing Group
Scientists discover pre-dinosaur fossil of reptile with embryo

An extraordinary fossil unearthed in southwestern China shows a pregnant long-necked marine reptile that lived millions of years before the dinosaurs (...)