Caudipteryx zoui
"Zou's tail feather"

In this updated rendering of Caudipteryx (one of the 'original' feathered dinosaurs), I attempted to correct many of the inaccuracies present in the older drawings. The main change is in the structure of the arm and wing. It is know known that Caudipteryx had a severely shortened third finger, probably joined to the middle finger and not visible under the feathers. Also, in the old drawing Caudipteryx had contour feathers only on the arm (secondaries). In fact, Caudipteryx lacked secondaries all together. Instead it had  rather short fan of primaries (hand contour feathers). The tail fan, cut off in previous drawings, is reconstructed in a 'V' shape based on positioning in the fossil. It's possible that Caudipteryx had a pygostyle ('parson's nose) at the tip of it's tail vertebrae to support the fan, but the fossil isn't preserved well enough to be absolutely certain of this, and the pygostyle was at any rate much less pronounced than the on on its close relative Nomingia.

A bit of speculation enters into this scene. Caudipteryx is shown picking at some rather large seeds that have fallen to the ground in it's lakeside habitat. Seeds of this size aren't definitely known to exist in this period, though early flowering plants did exist along side Caudipteryx (a few varieties are sketched in, based on known fossils). Even if nuts like these existed it's uncertain if this type of food would have been in the diet of Caudipteryx.

Perched above is a small Microraptor, a tiny deinonychosaur from the same Liaoning deposits. This creature was no more than 40 centimeters long, most of it tail. Caudipteryx itself could grow up to three feet (1 meter) in length. Originally published as an avialan close to Archaeopteryx, Caudipteryx is now thought to be an enigmosaur, probably a basal member of the oviraptorosaurian clade, as shown below.