Dutch Paleontologist Discovers Ancient Reptile with a Remarkable Feathered Crest

A small reptile that lived 247 million years ago in what is now northern France has been identified by a team led by Dutch paleontologist Stephan Spiekman. The creature, named Mirasaura, clambered through giant ferns hunting insects and carried a striking crest on its back - made of a material resembling feathers, but not quite.

The crest turns out to be a new type of skin outgrowth, independent from feathers, scales, or fur, that evolved separately. "This really changes how we look at reptiles," said Spiekman, who works at the State Museum of Natural History in Stuttgart, Germany.

Mirasaura likely used its crest for signaling - to intimidate rivals or communicate with its own kind. It was not suited for gliding or keeping warm. Spiekman reconstructed the skull in 3D using a CT scan made with a particle accelerator in Grenoble, France, and studied pigment granules in the crest.

The research, published in Nature, shows that feather-like skin outgrowths emerged multiple times across evolution. "The evolutionary possibilities of reptile skin are far stranger than previously thought," wrote Yale evolutionary biologist Richard Prum in a commentary.

Mirasaura lived during the Triassic period, just five million years after a mass extinction likely caused by volcanic eruptions. "The world was quite empty," Spiekman said. "Many new animal and plant species developed, and reptiles in particular took advantage." The species and its entire family likely went extinct 200 million years ago, long before dinosaurs rose to dominance.