Rainbow dinosaur with feathers like a Hummingbird discovered
Hebei : The scientists have discovered a crow size bird-like dinosaur with rainbow colour feathers in Northeastern China.
The newly discovered 'rainbow' dinosaur is believed to be living 161 million years ago during the Jurassic Period.
The scientists have named the species as Caihong, the Mandarin word for rainbow.
As per microscopic structure of nearly complete fossil unearthed in Hebei Province, the dinosaur is likely to be of crow size with feathers, particularly on its head, neck and chest, with colors that shimmered and shifted in the light, like those of hummingbirds.
The discovery "suggests a more colorful Jurassic World than we previously imagined," said evolutionary biologist Chad Eliason of the Field Museum in Chicago.
Chad Eliason is one of the researchers in the study that has been published in the journal Nature Communications.
The major section of the body is covered with black feathers while its head and neck gets a colourful rainbow touch.
Caihong was a two-legged predator with a Velociraptor-like skull and sharp teeth, probably hunting small mammals and lizards. It had crests above its eyes that looked like bony eyebrows.
“It is extremely similar to some early birds such as Archaeopteryx,” said paleontologist Xing Xu of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, referring to the earliest-known bird, which lived 150 million years ago. “Its forelimbs were configured like wings. To be honest, I am not sure what function the feathers have, and I don’t think that you can completely exclude the possibility that the feathers helped the animal to get in the air.”