Psittacosaurus bristle article in Naturwissenschaften online

[bh480@scn.org]

From: Ben Creisler bh480@scn.org
In case this has not been mentioned yet, the 
Naturwissenschaften site has a preprint version of an 
article about Psittacosaurus bristles:

Mayr, Gerald Mayr, D. Stefan Peters, Gerhard Plodowski and 
Olaf Vogel, 2002. Bristle-like integumentary structures at 
the tail of the horned dinosaur Psittacosaurus. 
Naturwissenschaften, DOI 10.1007/s00114-002-0339-6
Published online: 17 July 2002.

Abstract. A specimen of the horned dinosaur Psittacosaurus 
from the early Cretaceous of China is described in which 
the integument is extraordinarily well-preserved. Most 
unusual is the presence of long bristle-like structures on 
the proximal part of tail. We interpret these structures 
as cylindrical and possibly tubular epidermal structures 
that were anchored deeply in the skin. They might have 
been used in display behavior and especially if one 
assumes that they were colored, they may have had a signal 
function. At present, there is no convincing evidence 
which shows these structures to be homologous to the 
structurally different integumentary filaments of theropod 
dinosaurs. Independent of their homology, however, the 
discovery of bristle-like structures in Psittacosaurus is 
of great evolutionary significance since it shows that the 
integumentary covering of at least some dinosaurs was much 
more complex than has ever been previously imagined.

http://link.springer-
ny.com/link/service/journals/00114/contents/02/00339/paper/
s00114-002-0339-6ch110.html