By Will DunhamMay 27 (Reuters) – New Guinea’s tropical rainforests are home to one of the animal kingdom’s most spectacular courtship rituals, with male birds of paradise prancing about and showing off their plumage, hoping to attract a female. But, as a new fossil from China indicates, such behavior in birds may date back to the age of dinosaurs.Researchers said the fossil discovered in northeastern China of a newly identified pigeon-sized bird species called Plumadraco bankoorum that lived about 121 million years ago preserved nearly its entire plumage including tail feathers that were two times as long as its body.AdvertisementAdvertisementThey believe the specimen was male because long ornamental tail feathers today typically belong to male birds. Based on the length and structure of these feathers and the anatomy of a skeletal structure called a pygostyle that anchored the muscles controlling them, the researchers hypothesize that a male Plumadraco would have moved its tail feathers up and down in a display to get the attention of a mate.”With this specimen, we have a pretty strong argument that not only did males probably try to attract females with feather ornamentation, but they also did so with ridiculous lengths and probably displays,” said Alex Clark, a doctoral candidate in evolutionary biology at the University of Chicago and the Field Museum in Chicago, lead author of the research published on Wednesday in the journal PLOS One.”It means that 121 million years ago, this male Plumadraco was dragging along a train of tail feathers twice its body length, just to impress potential mates – something we see today in modern birds as well. Pretty cool if you ask me,” Clark said.The pygostyle’s structure suggests b …
