Why palaeontologists are aflutter over new fossil feather finds

A steady stream of new discoveries is developing our view of the colourful and fuzzy world of dinosaurs and ancient birds

Hello everyone, and welcome to a new episode of News from the World of Old Feathers. Sit back and relax, because my, my, we have some new ground to cover.

Colourful feathers are relevant to numerous aspects of avian biology, including sexual selection, camouflage and communication. For a long time, the answer to the question "What colour were the first birds?" was a rather speculative one, as contrary to what creationists or the TV series the Flintstones try to tell you, no humans were around in the Mesozoic era when the first birds appeared. But the discovery of feathers in avian and non-avian dinosaurs, and traces of colour inside those feathers, has massively increased our understanding of the early evolution of birds.