T. rex with feathers: China’s fossils are rewriting the dinosaur story

Twenty-five years ago, Chinese scientists revealed the first feathered dinosaur. Since then, they have unearthed a treasure trove of exquisitely preserved specimens that put dinosaurs in a whole new light

By Michael Benton

IN OCTOBER 1996, I was in New York City attending the annual meeting of the Society of Vertebrate Paleontology at the American Museum of Natural History. The atmosphere was electric. I recall hurried encounters in hallways featuring black and white photographs and stunned reactions. Yale University’s John Ostrom – the leading expert on fossil birds and dinosaurs at the time – said the images left him “in a state of shock”. Another dinosaur expert, Phil Currie, then at the Royal Tyrrell …