WASHINGTON (Dispatches)-A crow-size, bird-like dinosaur with colorful feathers has been discovered in northeastern China that lived 161 million years ago during the Jurassic Period, scientists say.
They named it Caihong, the Mandarin word for rainbow. Microscopic structures in the exquisitely preserved, nearly complete fossil unearthed in Hebei Province indicated that it boasted iridescent feathers, particularly on its head, neck and chest, with colors that shimmered and shifted in the light, like those of hummingbirds.
The discovery "suggests a more colorful Jurassic World than we previously imagined,” said evolutionary biologist Chad Eliason of the Field Museum in Chicago, one of the researchers in the study published in the journal Nature Communications.
The scientists used powerful microscopes to detect within the feathers the remnants of organelles called melanosomes responsible for pigmentation. Their shape determines the color. Caihong’s feathers had pancake-shape melanosomes similar to those of hummingbirds with iridescent feathers.
Much of its body had dark feathers, but ribbon-like iridescent feathers covered its head and neck. While it possessed many bird-like characteristics, the researchers doubted it could actually get airborne. Its plumage could have attracted mates while also providing insulation.
Caihong was a two-legged predator with a Velociraptor-like skull and sharp teeth, probably hunting small mammals and lizards. It had crests above its eyes that looked like bony eyebrows.



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An illustration of a reconstruction of the iridescent dinosaur that had rainbow feathers, named Caihong juji. (Photo by Reuters)