Sinosauropteryx - the "Bandit Mask" and where did it live?

[Everything_Dinosaur]

There has been quite a bit of media coverage about the paper published on the compsognathid from the Lower Cretaceous of China (Sinosauropteryx prima).  Yes, it probably sported a "bandit mask" over the eyes, making it look like the Lone Ranger, but perhaps more importantly, this study has inferred that Sinosauropterxy probably lived in open, sunlight environments.  In this article, Everything Dinosaur team members try to explain how the researchers were able to come to these conclusions.

This type of research enables palaeontologists to understand more about an extinct animal's behaviour and to better understand how it interacted with its environment, this is a very exciting area.

Here is the article:Sinosauropteryx - Bandit Mask Out of the Forest etc

Feel free to comment on the blog posting, hope this helps.

[Reptilia]

Exciting find! It is always thrilling to discover such kind of evidence, makes dinosaurs more and more alive in your imagination.

[Neosodon]

It's nice to see safari's favorite color scheme matches real fossil evidence.

[Reptilia]

Yes, basically the same they used for the Deinocheirus. I did notice that too.

[ZoPteryx]

Really interesting study!  Surprising to discover Sinosauropteryx favored more open environments, not what one would expect given the depositional environment.

Even more peculiar, I think, is that the authors suggest Sinosauropteryx's feathering went right down to the end of its snout!

[Ravonium]

I wonder if Sinosauropteryx would have basically been a dinosaurian American badger. Let's look at the similarities:

   
• They both have, to a degree, "bandit masks"
• They both like open environments
• They weren't too different in size
• They both had countershading

The main difference is what clade of animals they are in and their colour.


I would also be interesting to see what this discovery reveals to us about how Sinosauropteryx fed.

[Lanthanotus]

Looking to ealier reconstructions of the species lots of things have been known already or at least guessed with scientific backing. However it is nice to see how sharp such colorisations and patterns can be reconstructed with todays' methods.

One thing I do not agree with is the "open evnvironment", guessed from the patterns and colorisations and the idea for the "mask". After all, recent animals with this feature are all generally more active during dusk and night, rather than bright daylight (polecat, racoon, badger) and all of them prefer forested environment over open ground. Also, animals that are in need of sun protection for their eyes usually show enlarged brows (hair, feathers, scales - most times there isn't evidence for this shown in the bones). And features as countershading apply to animals in open country aswell as to animals in forested areas, aswell as patterns like stripes, dots or ocellus, I find it very hard to apply a definite ecological pattern here that can make a sure statement about the animals environment. For leopards the same pattern works quite nice in open country aswell as in bush savannah or dense forests, lions on the other hand show no patterns or strong countershading and do well in open land, tigers again prefer forested areas, cougars hunt successfully in any sort of environemt and a scucessfull living applies also for the herbivores... red deer looks totally differnt from chitals but both thrive in the same sort of enviroment.

[Dinoguy2]

Looking to ealier reconstructions of the species lots of things have been known already or at least guessed with scientific backing. However it is nice to see how sharp such colorisations and patterns can be reconstructed with todays' methods.

One thing I do not agree with is the "open evnvironment", guessed from the patterns and colorisations and the idea for the "mask". After all, recent animals with this feature are all generally more active during dusk and night, rather than bright daylight (polecat, racoon, badger) and all of them prefer forested environment over open ground. Also, animals that are in need of sun protection for their eyes usually show enlarged brows (hair, feathers, scales - most times there isn't evidence for this shown in the bones). And features as countershading apply to animals in open country aswell as to animals in forested areas, aswell as patterns like stripes, dots or ocellus, I find it very hard to apply a definite ecological pattern here that can make a sure statement about the animals environment. For leopards the same pattern works quite nice in open country aswell as in bush savannah or dense forests, lions on the other hand show no patterns or strong countershading and do well in open land, tigers again prefer forested areas, cougars hunt successfully in any sort of environemt and a scucessfull living applies also for the herbivores... red deer looks totally differnt from chitals but both thrive in the same sort of enviroment.

The authors do not suggest that all open-environment species have sharp counter shading. They suggest that most sharp counter shaded animals live in open environments. Counter shading works by negating the effect of bright sunlight illuminating half an animal. It makes the sunny part darker and the shady part brighter, evening it out and making other camo strategies work better. That doesn't mean counter shading is the only or the best strategy for open environments, or that it doesn't work at all in closed environments, just that it's optimized for open areas.

[ZoPteryx]

One thing I do not agree with is the "open evnvironment", guessed from the patterns and colorisations and the idea for the "mask". After all, recent animals with this feature are all generally more active during dusk and night, rather than bright daylight (polecat, racoon, badger) and all of them prefer forested environment over open ground.

Shrikes and a number of other birds of open places posses "bandit masks".  Perhaps they'd make better analogues than mammals.