Epidexipteryx The Almost Bird

©Nobu Tamura

Toting a name that means "Display feather", Epidexipteryx is often portrayed as almost peacock-like.The feathers that are portrayed as such often have wonderful colors and almost distract from the small paravian body of the dinosaur. Paravian dinosaurs are small theropods that are closely related to birds, but also still related to dinosaurs, with Oviraptorids being considered one of the closest dinosaurs related to their clade. Epidexipteryx comes from the Jurassic beds of China, meaning it was temporally near Archaeopteryx and many other bird-like and paravian dinosaurs. One rather interesting anatomical feature of this dinosaur is the strange shape of its lower jaw, which we will look at in further detail this week. Also, we will look at its unique fingers and those rather ostentatious tail feathers as well.