Kulindadromeus

Kulindadromeus was a small, two-legged herbivorous dinosaur known from Middle Jurassic lake deposits of Siberia, Russia. Reaching roughly one and a half metres in length and weighing just a few kilograms, it was a light and agile browser of low foliage. The genus is famed for its exquisitely preserved integument, which reveals a complex covering combining several types of skin structures: overlapping scales on the tail, bristly filaments along the neck, and compound feather-like tufts across the torso and limbs. Because Kulindadromeus is an ornithischian, its discovery suggested that basic feathers or feather precursors might have been an ancestral trait shared by all dinosaurs rather than an invention exclusive to the carnivorous theropod lineage.

It demonstrated that filamentous feather-like integument was present in ornithischian dinosaurs, not just theropods.

Where and when

Kulindadromeus lived in the Middle Jurassic, from 168 to 165 million years ago (Bathonian age). Its remains come from Russia, in the Ukurey Formation.

The numbers

Length 1.4 m (estimates run from 1.2 to 1.5 m). Mass about 3.2 kg. Hip height about 0.5 m. That is 0.8 human-lengths, or 0.13 of a double-decker bus. These are estimates from near-complete skeleton; fields marked estimated by the site are length, mass, first ma, last ma, hip height.

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