New Paper in Science

UCC School of BEES palaeontologist Dr Maria McNamara is involved in a paper published recently in the journal Science:

Godefroit, P., Sinitsa, S.M., Dhouailly, D., Bolotsky, Y.L., Sizov, A.V., McNamara, M.E., Benton, M.J., Spagna, P., 2014. Response to Comment on ‘A Jurassic ornithischian dinosaur from Siberia with both feathers and scales’. Science, 346, 434-435. DOI: 10.1126/science.1260146. CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD THE PDF!

This paper follows on from the team’s discovery earlier this year of fossil feathers in a primitive dinosaur from Siberia (10.1126/science.1253351). This finding has proved controversial, with some other palaeontologists disputing whether the preserved features in the dinosaur are indeed feathers (10.1126/science.1259983).

McNamara’s current paper is an official response to these concerns and presents additional new data that the fossil features are feathers, confirming the team’s original interpretations of feather preservation and evolution.