>This Psittacosaurus is pretty amazing. A complete
>specimen with filaments preserved inside the ribs.
>Often preserved crossing one another, they do
>form herringbone patterns sometimes. They claim some
>filaments appear beaded and curved, which occurs in
>degraded collagen.
Do we have to wait for their published work on the
creature or are there anymore references to it
available. I haven't been following things recently
and I'm a bit out of the loop on the new discoveries.
Furthermore, the fibers are within the ribs? Couldn,t
that leave a lot of possibilities open.
>Are these feathers?
>No, as we have the very well preserved quilled
>specimen that indicates
>psittacosaurs were fully scaled, including over the
>rib region. Could this be a feathered juvenile of a
>scaled adult? It is half the size of the
>quilled specimen (and doesn't preserve quills, though
>this could be taphonomic). So I can't dismiss that
>possibility.
Wonder if it could be a sort of juvenile quilling, and
not just soft down? Oh well, I have no idea.
Pictures would definitely help here.