Feathers originated as dinosaur whiskers, U of A experts speculate

The origin of the feather is a mystery two Alberta dinosaur experts hope to solve.

Scott Persons,PhD candidate at University of Alberta,and PhilipCurrie, professor and Canada Research Chair in Dinosaur Paleobiology, want to reach back millions of years to the very first feathers.

• Dinosaur feathers found in Alberta amber

Present-day birds use feathers for flight, social display and as insulation to retain body heat, all highly sophisticated functions, Persons told Edmonton AM's Mark Connolly on Wednesday.

• Listen to interview with Scott Persons here

"All those functions require pretty large, pretty complex and pretty dense covering of feathers," he said."But one thing you can do with really, really simple feathers feathers that essentially look like short hairsis you can use them as whiskers, simple tactile sensors."

Maybe, Persons speculates, that's how feathers originated, with the more complex functions developing over time.

Birds still use smallfacial feathers for the same purpose, he said.

While the fossil recordshows some dinosaurs had such simple feathers, it's not yet possible to determine their function.

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"We don't yet have a definitive bristle or tactile sensory feather on a dinosaur," he said.

But it may be only a matter of time.

Sensory feathers on a bird's face are unique, containing pigments that make them stiff.

"They're getting to the point where technology can distinguish some of these pigments in fossil dinosaur feathers," Persons said.