When was dandruff discovered

But the latest fossils suggest that dino corneocytes were more densely packed with keratin. Fuzzy feathers could have been used to insulate eggs in nests and larger feathers could shade eggs or young. Lightweight feathers may have replaced the bony crests and elaborate horns some use to attract mates. Since critters can molt, they could then change color for camouflage during certain parts of the year. When you think of animals with dandruff, dinosaurs probably aren't the first creature that would come to mind.

But palaeontologists have recently discovered the oldest dandruff ever found - on a dinosaur fossil. It's from a small feathered dino from a staggering million years ago. Although this might seem like a weird thing to look out for, it actually has huge implications for what we know about how feathered dinosaurs shed their skin.

Paleontologists found tiny flakes of fossilised skin on a crow-sized microraptor , a meat-eating dinosaur that had wings on all four of its limbs. The prehistoric skin flakes are the only evidence scientists have of how dinosaurs shed their skin. The material shows that rather than losing their outer layer in one piece, or in large sheets, as is common with modern reptiles, the feathered dinosaurs adapted to shed their skin in tiny flakes. Images of the dandruff taken with a powerful electron microscope show that the material is extremely well-preserved and is almost identical to that found on modern birds.

Beipiaosaurus and sinornithosaurus, feathered dinosaurs from the Cretaceous period, were also studied, as well as confuciusornis, a prehistoric bird that lived at the same time. The study was published yesterday in Nature Communications , an academic journal. The Chinese. Subscription Notification. We have noticed that there is an issue with your subscription billing details.