Sinosauropteryx

What it was like

Sinosauropteryx was a small, fast-moving hunter with an unusually long tail and short arms. It grew to only about 1.1 meters (3.6 feet) long, small enough to have hunted lizards and other tiny animals rather than anything large.

It is best known for being the first non-bird dinosaur ever found with clear evidence of feathers, a short, simple, hair-like coat rather than the flight feathers seen in birds. Some fossils preserve dark banding along the tail, evidence of a color pattern, though the exact colors are still debated.

Its world

Sinosauropteryx lived from about 126 to 120 million years ago, in the Early Cretaceous, in what is now China. Its fossils come from the Yixian Formation.

It shared this world with other feathered dinosaurs such as Beipiaosaurus, Dilong, Caudipteryx, Sinornithosaurus, and Liaoningosaurus, the larger predator Yutyrannus, and the plant eater Psittacosaurus.

How it was found

Sinosauropteryx was named in 1996 by two paleontologists who both happened to be named Ji. Only about four fossil finds of the genus are known, but because the earliest ones were so well preserved, they helped convince scientists that many dinosaurs, not just birds, carried feathers.