Dinosaur fossils preserved with their feathers suggest that some of these animals had already lost the ability to fly. As the research team explains, "Feather molting seems like a small technical detail -- but when examined in fossils, it can change everything we thought about the origins of flight, highlighting how complex and diverse wing evolution truly was."

A new study led by a researcher from the School of Zoology and the Steinhardt Museum of Natural History at Tel Aviv University analyzed rare fossils with intact feathers and found evidence that these dinosaurs were not capable of flight. This unusual discovery offers a rare look at how animals lived 160 million years ago and sheds new light on how flight evolved in both dinosaurs and modern birds. The researchers note, "This finding has broad significance, as it suggests that the development of flight throughout the evolution of dinosaurs and birds was far more complex than previously believed.…