It has long been thought that dinosaurs were related to
birds…the proof is mounting as well, the latest being a full
skeleton of a dinosaur with feathers: German researchers have
discovered a fossil of a feathered hatchling that may be the
earliest evidence of a plumed, meat-eating dinosaur that was not
closely related to birds. The fossil is believed to belong to a
young land-based dinosaur from the Late Jurassic period, some
170 million years ago, said a study in the Proceedings of the
National Academy of Sciences. Named Sciurumimus albersdoerferi,
in part after its bushy, squirrel-like tail – tree squirrels
come from the genus Sciurus – it is the “most complete
megalosauroid fossil yet”, the study said. Megalosauroid is the
name for a wide-ranging group of carnivorous dinosaurs that
could grow as big as 9m long and weigh up to one tonne. The
fossil, which shows a juvenile dinosaur with its jaws open and
tail extending far over its head, was found in a quarry in
Bavaria, Germany. The hatchling likely had a