In the meantime, other scientists sought to illuminate the origin of feathers by examining the scales of modern reptiles, the closest living relatives of birds. Both scales and feathers are flat.

Dinosaurs are the extinct relatives of birds that roamed the lands and seas of ancient Earth. They first appeared around 240 ...

Biologists have long known that feathers and hairs both start as structures called placodes. In reptiles, however, biologists had found distinct skin areas that yielded scales but no placodes.

Scientists now believe that feathers didn’t just appear suddenly in birds. Instead, they evolved step by step from much ...

But modern science is changing that, revealing unexpected connections in the tree of life — and opening our eyes to skies filled with modern feathered, flying reptiles.

At the 12th day of incubation, feather buds exhibit longitudinal domains of cell density that correspond to the barbs of the future down feather. Feathers are among the most complex cutaneous ...

“People were fighting about the fact that reptiles either lost it, or birds and mammals independently developed them,” Milinkovitch told The New York Times. “Now we are lucky enough to put this debate ...

It had feathered wings like living birds, but also had traits found in reptiles, such as teeth, claws and a long bony tail. Charles Darwin, who had published On the Origin of Species two years ...