The question of whether some dinosaurs were covered with either scales or feathers has a new answer: both.
Researchers examined the skin of the feathered dinosaur Psittacosaurus from the early Cretaceous period (135 million years to 120 million years ago) and found “zones” of reptile-style scales as well as “zones” where feathers were present, according to a study in Nature Communications. The early Cretaceous marks the period when some dinosaurs were evolving into birds.
