A new study by a former University of Alberta postdoctoral researcher sheds light on how dinosaurs’ feathers evolved from simple insulators into a flight-enabling feature.
“There are three identifiable feather functions that we see spread out through the evolution of feather dinosaurs,” said Scott Persons, now the curator of the Mace Brown Museum in South Carolina’s College of Charleston, as well as a professor at the school. Before taking on that role, Persons completed his masters, PhD and postdoc studies at the U of A.
The variety that bridged these two types feathers served the same purpose as the flashy feathers of peacocks or the antlers of deer — attracting mates. Throughout the study, Persons analyzed troves of fossils, many of which required travelling to China. It was a study that encompassed much of his time as a postdoctoral student at the U of A.“Evolution tends to work in a bushy, branching fashions. There were many splits of the feathered dinosaur family tree that led to animals experimenting with feather forms that were ultimately dead-ends,” he said.