Researchers examined three specimens of the iconic Sinosauropteryx prima dinosaur from China and have confirmed that the small dinosaur had a striped tail and a “bandit mask”, dark stripes around the eyes.
Credits
Video: David Marshall, University of Bristol
Artistic interpretation of Sinosauropteryx: Robert Nicholls
Research:
Countershading and Stripes in the Theropod Dinosaur Sinosauropteryx Reveal Heterogeneous Habitats in the Early Cretaceous Jehol Biota
Fiann M. Smithwick, Robert Nicholls, Innes C. Cuthill, Jakob Vinther
Current Biology DOI: 10.1016/j.cub.2017.09.032