Sinosauropteryx prima
Pen and Ink
Paper Size: 11" x 14"
Mat Size: 16" x 20"
Jane's Notes: Until the 1990s, a prevailing hypothesis posited that feathers developed as elongated scales that began as means to facilitate gliding. The discovery of Sinosauropteryx prima in 1996 in the Liaoning province of northeastern China provided evidence suggesting an alternative. Covered in single-filament plumage, Sinosauropteryx was the first feathered dinosaur ever discovered. Although primitive compared with their modern counterparts, Sinosauropteryx’s protofeathers would have been effective insulators, all but confirming that plumage first emerged not as a mechanism for flight but as a way to regulate temperature.
I gave Sinosauropteryx an overcoat of fuzz, inspired by the downy feathers of a gosling. The banding on its tail is reflective of the remarkable fact that paleontologists are now able to determine the coloring of many dinosaurs based on pigments found in their fossils; the results suggest that display had an early and important role even for basal feathers. Sinosauropteryx is thought to have had a dark body and a white underbelly with an auburn and white tail similar in pattern to that of a modern ring-tailed lemur. I painted Sinosauropteryx as a curious little beast, its left foot inching dangerously close to the monstrous Yutyrannus.
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