Saturday, 26 May 2018

Fossilised Dandruff


Researchers have reportedly found fossilised dandruff in association with the remains of small, carnivorous, feathered dinosaurs (https://www.theguardian.com/science/2018/may/25/oldest-known-case-of-dandruff-found-in-125-million-year-old-dinosaur). They suspect that the presence of feathers forced such reptiles to modify their normal skin shedding in one piece, replacing it by losing small, localised items of skin (i.e. dandruff). Modern birds also produce dandruff but in a form that facilities cooling of the body (probably more energetically-demanding in modern birds due to their much longer flights, than in microraptors and the earliest birds).   

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