125 million-year-old preserved dandruff reveals how dinosaurs shed their skin

An impression released by the University of Nagoya shows oviraptorosour dinosaurs incubating eggs. AFP.[/caption]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 are Microraptor, Beipiaosaurus and Sinornithosaurus who 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.