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 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).

Caudipteryx could grow up to three feet (1 meter) in length. Originally published as an avialan close to Archaeopteryx, Caudipteryx is now thought to be a basal member of the oviraptorosaurian clade.

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Image Details:
Media: Graphite, digital coloring in Adobe Photoshop CS using WACOM Graphire 3
License:
Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0
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