Feathered fossil still stirs debate

Pity poor little Caudipteryx, an animal that undoubtedly would be suffering an identity crisis if it were still around.

Researchers who first described the 120-million-year-old fossils of the turkey-size species in 1998 claimed the animal’s ancestors were meat-eating dinosaurs (SN: 6/27/98, p. 404: http://new.sciencenews.org/sn_arc98/6_27_98/fob1.htm). Even though Caudipteryx obviously had feathers on its short tail and forelimbs, it lacked many other typical features of birds.