In news that shouldn't surprise anyone who finds them so irresistible, paleontologists are now claiming that the earliest dinosaurs to develop feathers did so for courtship purposes and not to soar like giant, sexy eagles.
"They may have initially evolved as a secondary sexual characteristic," says a paper published Thursday in the prestigious journal Science.
"Because they're in these large dinosaurs, (wings) haven't evolved for flight," Zelenitsky says. "(And) because these wing-like structures develop later in life, that suggests they were used for purposes like display or courtship or egg-brooding."
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