"Wonder fossil“ Mirasaura

An international team led by palaeontologists Dr Stephan Spiekman and Prof Dr Rainer Schoch from the State Museum of Natural History Stuttgart, Germany, describes a previously unknown tree-dwelling reptile from the early Middle Triassic in a recent study published in the prestigious journal "Nature". It was named after the collector of the fossil, Louis Grauvogel, whose collection was transferred to the State Museum of Natural History in Stuttgart.

The 247-million-year-old reptile Mirasaura grauvogeli, whose name means “Grauvogel’s Wonder Reptile”, had a dorsal crest with previously unknown, structurally complex appendages growing from its skin with some similarities to feathers. The crest was probably used for display to other members of the same species. The find shows that complex skin structures are not only found in birds and their closest relatives but may predate modern reptiles. This important discovery forces us to reconsider our understanding of reptile evolution.

Unique skin structures in early reptiles
The crest of the rather small Mirasaura consists of individual, densely overlapping appendages that each possess a feather-like contour with a narrow central ridge. While real feathers consist of many delicate branched structures called barbs, there is no evidence of such branching in the appendages of Mirasaura. Because of this, the team believes that the structure of the complex, unique skin appendages of Mirasaura evolved largely independently of those of birds.