Skip to main content

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

  • News & Views
  • Published:

When is a bird not a bird?

Nature volume 393, pages 729–730 (1998)Cite this article

Birds were once thought to have a large number of features exclusive to the group. One by one those features have also been identified in fossils of certain theropod dinosaurs. Now feathers join the list.

Among all living creatures, only birds have feathers. So when the fossil of a single isolated feather was found in the Late Jurassic rocks of Bavaria shortly after Darwin published On the Origin of Species in 1859, it was enough to demonstrate that, astonishingly, birds must have existed in those remote times (now known to be some 150 million years ago). When the skeleton of Archaeopteryx was discovered in the same area in 1861, it fulfilled that plumose prediction. But the skeleton was recognized as a bird's mainly because it had feathers on its wings and tail. Nothing else except an odd, boomerang-shaped wishbone seemed to ally it to living birds. In fact, some other specimens were assigned to Archaeopteryx only belatedly, because no feathers were preserved in the fossils concerned. Those specimens had instead been taken for small carnivorous (theropod) dinosaurs.

This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution

Access options

Buy this article

  • Purchase on Springer Link
  • Instant access to full article PDF
Buy now

Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout

Figure 1: Distribution of known feather types and other features in selected groups of theropod dinosaurs, including birds (Aves).

References

  1. Ji, Q., Currie, P. J., Norell, M. A. & Ji, S.-A. Nature 393, 753–761 (1998).

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  2. Ji, Q. & Ji, S.-A. Chinese Geol. 238, 38–41 (1997).

    Google Scholar 

  3. Ji, Q. & Ji, S.-A. Chinese Geol. 233, 30–33 (1996).

    Google Scholar 

  4. Chen, P.-j., Dong, Z.-m. & Zhen, S.-n. Nature 391, 147–152 (1998).

    Article  ADS  CAS  Google Scholar 

  5. Ostrom, J. H. Zitteliana 4, 73–118 (1978).

    Google Scholar 

  6. Geist, N. R., Jones, T. D. & Ruben, J. A. J. Vert. Paleont. 17, 48A (1997).

    Google Scholar 

  7. Padian, K. & Chiappe, L. M. Biol. Rev. 73, 1–42 (1998).

    Google Scholar 

  8. Cowen, R. & Lipps, J. H. Proc. 3rd N. Am. Paleont. Conv. (Montreal) 109–112 (1985).

    Google Scholar 

  9. Griffiths, P. J. Archaeopteryx 14, 1–26 (1994).

    Google Scholar 

  10. Pérez-Moreno, B. P.et al. Nature 370, 363–367 (1994).

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  11. Briggs, D. E. G.et al. J. Geol. Soc. Lond. 154, 587–588 (1997).

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. The Department of Integrative Biology and the Museum of Paleontology, University of California at Berkeley, Berkeley, 94720-3140, California, USA

    Kevin Padian

Authors
  1. Kevin Padian
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Padian, K. When is a bird not a bird?. Nature 393, 729–730 (1998). https://doi.org/10.1038/31576

Download citation

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/31576

This article is cited by

Search

Advanced search

Quick links

Nature Briefing

Sign up for the Nature Briefing newsletter — what matters in science, free to your inbox daily.

Get the most important science stories of the day, free in your inbox. Sign up for Nature Briefing