You know something is strange when even a peer reviewed journal calls it ‘bizarre’. Nature presents: Epidexipteryx hui. The strangest fossil seen on the Great Beyond in a while is detailed in a paper in this week’s issue.

Its most obvious intriguing feature is the two prominent pairs of tail feathers, which could have been used in mating displays.

“It shows that feathers were likely being used for ornamentation for many millions of years before they were modified for flight,” says Angela Milner, an expert at London’s Natural History Museum who was not involved in the research (BBC). “It provides fascinating evidence of evolutionary experiments with feathers that were going on before small dinosaurs finally took to the air and became birds.”

Discovered in China by researchers led by Fucheng Zhang, of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, the animal is probably between 152 and 168 million years old. This would make it slightly older than the earliest known bird Archaeopteryx.

“This is very exciting indeed, since it gives us a window into a stage of avialan history just preceding the appearance of the classic ‘first bird’,” says Zhang (National Geographic). Fellow paper author Zhonghe Zhou, adds, “Therefore, it could provide a lot of information about the transition process from dinos to birds” (Fox News).

The name comes from the Greek for ‘display’ and ‘feather’ (‘Epidexi’ and ‘pteryx’) and the late palaeontologist Yaoming Hu. Hu was an expert in Mesozoic mammals who died in April, says AFP.

Headline watch

Shake a tail-feather: Scientists reveal the pigeon-sized dinosaur that is birds’ earliest ancestor – Daily Mail

Shake Your Jurassic Tail Feather – The Loom