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Pygostyle‐like Structure from Beipiaosaurus (Theropoda, Therizinosauroidea) from the Lower Cretaceous Yixian Formation of Liaoning, China
Author(s) -
Xing XU,
Yennien CHENG,
Xiaolin WANG,
Chunhsiang CHANG
Publication year - 2003
Publication title -
acta geologica sinica ‐ english edition
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.444
H-Index - 61
eISSN - 1755-6724
pISSN - 1000-9515
DOI - 10.1111/j.1755-6724.2003.tb00744.x
Subject(s) - flight feather , theropoda , yixian formation , cretaceous , feather , china , paleontology , biology , geography , moulting , ecology , archaeology , mesozoic , structural basin , larva
Pygostyle was previously considered as a unique structure of ornithothoracine birds, used to maneuver tail feathers. A similar structure from an oviraptorosaurian dinosaur was considered functionally associated with the rectrices as in birds. We report a pygostyle‐like structure from a therizinosauroid dinosaur. The presence of filamentous integuments, but absence of rectrices, on the tail of this therizinosauroid, combined with other lines of evidence, suggests that the initial function of the pygostyle was not related to the rectrices.