New Discovery Reveals Colorful Dinosaur from the Past

detailed photographs of the fossil and ported the images to digital platforms for closer examination. The specimen was surprisingly well-preserved, with body feathers from head to ankles, wing feathers, and, of course, the tail feathers—which Clark noted was a “new record” for any enantiornithine, the most diverse group of birds during the Mesozoic.

The fossil itself didn’t really leave much in the way of clues for the team to determine its sex. However, it seems more likely that this specimen was male. The structure of the feathers suggests “eye-catching levels of movement if moved up and down,” which is also reminiscent of what we see in the courtship displays of modern birds with long, ornamented tails, Clark explained in the PLOS interview.

“Additionally, other enantiornithine specimens suggest muscles along the pelvis and tail, which raise and lower the tail,” he added. “With this specimen, we have a pretty strong argument that not only did probable males try to attract females with feather ornamentation, but they also did so with ridiculous lengths and probably displays.”

Paleontological discoveries always come with the caveat that we’ll never know for certain if our hypotheses are correct. Heck, it took a while for scientists to realize the T. rex probably sported feathers. Still, if the latest findings are correct, it shows how “birds have been evolving costly, elongate, specialized features to attract mates for a long, long time,” Clark said in the Field Museum statement. “Based on these fossils, female choice in selecting ornamented males has been playing a huge part in how birds look and behave for more than 120 million years.”