Epidexipteryx

dinosaur · feathers · early ornaments

Fancy feather pioneer. Epidexipteryx is the earliest dinosaur we know of that had decorative feathers, not just feathers for flying. These ornamental feathers prove that dinosaurs were showing off their style long before birds existed.

Super small dinosaur. This maniraptoran was much tinier than the T. rex you might be imagining, making it one of the smallest dinosaurs we know about. Its small size made it perfectly suited for a tree-dwelling lifestyle.

One famous fossil. Scientists only have one skeleton of Epidexipteryx, and it lives in a museum in Beijing, China. This single fossil is so important that it changed how scientists think about dinosaur feathers forever.

Fluffy with flair. Its feathers weren't designed for flight like modern bird feathers. Instead, they were longer and fancier, probably used to attract mates or show dominance, similar to how peacocks use their tail feathers today.