Scientists said this week that a « diminutive » dinosaur from China is the first to sport a so-called « bandit mask » pattern around its eyes
Scientists said this week that a « diminutive » dinosaur from China is the first to sport a so-called « bandit mask » pattern around its eyes, an evolutionary feature common in modern-day mammals and birds, including raccoons.
The revelation came in a study released Thursday by researchers in England. « This is the first time it’s been seen in a dinosaur and, to my knowledge, any extinct animal that shows color bands, » a co-author of the study, Fiann Smithwick, told the BBC .
The roughly turkey-sized dinosaur, called Sinosauropteryx, was incidentally one of the first fossils to show evidence of feathers on dinosaurs, suggesting to paleontologists that the feature was widespread.
