--- description: A new dinosaur discovery gives us new insight into an incredible moment in evolution title: Study: Velociraptor Was a 'Fluffy, Feathered Poodle From Hell' image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltf4a1b64e67a77c69/69885b55524fc02b66df39d8/dinosaur-fossil-zhenyuanlong.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  * [Ideas](/section/ideas/) ## Ideas Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close # Study: Velociraptor Was a 'Fluffy, Feathered Poodle From Hell' by [Stephen Brusatte / The Conversation](/author/stephen-brusatte/) ## Stephen Brusatte / The Conversation Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Jul 17, 2015 7:37 PM CUT  This is an image provided by University of Edinburgh taken in Jinzhou, China, in 2014 and released on Thursday July 16, 2015 of the fossil of a new species of dinosaur named Zhenyuanlong suni. This is an image provided by University of Edinburgh taken in Jinzhou, China, in 2014 and released on Thursday July 16, 2015 of the fossil of a new species of dinosaur named Zhenyuanlong suni.Steve Brusatte—University of Edinburgh via AP by [Stephen Brusatte / The Conversation](/author/stephen-brusatte/) ## Stephen Brusatte / The Conversation Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Jul 17, 2015 7:37 PM CUT Tens of millions of people have flocked to theaters this summer to see Jurassic World, an action flick “starring” a team of trained _Velociraptors_ that hunt genetically modified dinosaurs on command of their human master. It’s a [preposterous storyline](https://theconversation.com/creating-dinosaurs-why-jurassic-world-could-never-work-35484 "undefined") of course, but [very entertaining](https://theconversation.com/jurassic-world-reviewed-by-a-dinosaur-expert-it-isnt-faithful-to-science-but-so-what-43271 "undefined"). I study dinosaurs for a living and it didn’t bother me to see _Velociraptors_ being [used as hunting dogs](https://theconversation.com/jurassic-world-if-you-make-a-monster-it-will-always-bite-back-42481 "undefined") for the sake of good cinema. What I didn’t like, however, was that the _Velociraptors_ were depicted as big, drab-coloured, scaly brutes. That’s because the real _Velociraptor_ was a lapdog-sized predator covered in feathers. Palaeontologists have known this for a while. If you look at the arm bones of _Velociraptor_ you can see a row of bumps, identical in size and shape to the quill knobs of living birds: the anchor points for [big wing feathers](http://www.sciencemag.org/content/317/5845/1721.short "undefined"). But because _Velociraptor_ hasn’t been found in the perfect geological settings that fossilise soft tissues, we don’t know exactly what its feathers would have looked like. But we have a better idea now, thanks to the discovery of a [spectacular new dinosaur](http://www.nature.com/articles/srep11775 "undefined") from northeastern China that I studied with my colleague, Junchang Lü of the Chinese Academy of Geological Sciences. Our new dinosaur, _Zhenyuanlong_, is one of the closest cousins of _Velociraptor_. Its gorgeous chocolate-coloured skeleton was found by a farmer in 125-million-year-old rocks that were laid down in a quiet lake buried by volcanic ash. It’s just the right environment for preserving the soft bits that usually decay before a fossil is formed. _Zhenyuanlong_ is covered in feathers. Simple hairy filaments coat much of the body, larger veined feathers stick out from the tail, and big quill-pen-feathers line the arms, layered over each other to form a wing. This is a dinosaur that looks just like a bird. If you could see it alive you would probably make no distinction between it and, say, a turkey or a vulture. Look at _Zhenyuanlong_ and you see what the real _Velociraptor_ would have been like. Far from being a scaly-skinned reptilian monster, _Velociraptor_ would have been a fluffy, feathered poodle from hell. Dinosaurs such as _Zhenyuanlong_ and _Velociraptor_ are some of my favourite fossils to study. [They fascinate me](https://theconversation.com/sci-fi-and-jurassic-park-have-driven-research-scientists-say-42864 "undefined") because they capture evolution in action. These small, fast-running, brainy predators are some of the closest relatives of birds. They are chapters in one of the greatest stories in the history of life: the evolutionary transition between fearsome carnivorous dinosaurs and their 10,000 feathered descendants [that live on today](https://theconversation.com/take-a-t-rex-and-a-chicken-and-youll-see-how-dinosaurs-shrank-survived-and-evolved-into-birds-29996 "undefined"), all over the world. And this is why the discovery of _Zhenyuanlong_ is really important. It gives us new insight into this incredible moment in evolution. _Zhenyuanlong_ is fairly large for a close relative of birds, two metres long from snout to tail. It also has much shorter arms than _Velociraptor_ or birds. A big, short-armed animal probably wasn’t flying, so what was it doing with its wings? We don’t know for sure. This opens up a whole new mystery for us to solve: why did wings evolve? Did they evolve for flight, or did they first develop for something else, and were later co-opted to be used as an airfoil? We don’t know the answer yet, but since new fossils of bird-like dinosaurs are being found at an incredible rate, maybe we’ll have it solved by the time the next Jurassic Park comes out. _This_ [_article_](https://theconversation.com/discovering-a-new-dinosaur-helped-us-prove-velociraptors-had-feathers-44788 "undefined") _originally appeared on_ [_The Conversation_](http://theconversation.com "undefined") _Read next:_ [_See Zookeepers Imitate Chris Pratt’s Raptor-Training Move in_ ](http://time.com/3927344/twitter-jurassic-world-meme/?iid=time%5Freadnext "undefined")[Jurassic World](http://time.com/3927344/twitter-jurassic-world-meme/?iid=time%5Freadnext "undefined") [_Listen to the most important stories of the day_](http://time.com/newsletter/the-brief/autoplay/?xid=spl-fullbrief-article "undefined") ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"OpinionNewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3961931/science-dinosaur-velociraptor-feather/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3961931/science-dinosaur-velociraptor-feather/"},"headline":"Study: Velociraptor Was a 'Fluffy, Feathered Poodle From Hell'","datePublished":"2015-07-17T19:37:40.000Z","dateModified":"2026-07-09T08:19:54.232Z","description":"A new dinosaur discovery gives us new insight into an incredible moment in evolution","url":"https://time.com/3961931/science-dinosaur-velociraptor-feather/","keywords":["Science topic","Jurassic World"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltf4a1b64e67a77c69/69885b55524fc02b66df39d8/dinosaur-fossil-zhenyuanlong.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Stephen Brusatte / The Conversation"}],"articleSection":"Ideas","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltf4a1b64e67a77c69/69885b55524fc02b66df39d8/dinosaur-fossil-zhenyuanlong.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"This is an image provided by University of Edinburgh taken in Jinzhou, China, in 2014 and released on Thursday July 16, 2015 of the fossil of a new species of dinosaur named Zhenyuanlong suni.","caption":"This is an image provided by University of Edinburgh taken in Jinzhou, China, in 2014 and released on Thursday July 16, 2015 of the fossil of a new species of dinosaur named Zhenyuanlong suni.","creditText":"Steve Brusatte—University of Edinburgh via AP","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/ideas/","name":"Ideas"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/3961931/science-dinosaur-velociraptor-feather/","name":"Study: Velociraptor Was a 'Fluffy, Feathered Poodle From Hell'"}}]}] ```