Scientists have discovered 125 million-year-old dandruff preserved amongst the plumage of feathered dinosaurs and early birds, revealing the first evidence of how the giant predators shed their skin.
The study, published in the journal Nature Communications , suggests that this modern skin feature evolved sometime in the late Middle Jurassic.
The feathered dinosaurs studied — Microraptor, Beipiaosaurus and Sinornithosaurus — clearly shed their skin in flakes, like the early bird Confuciusornis studied by the team and also modern birds and mammals, and not as a single piece or several large pieces, as in many modern reptiles.
