Exceptional preservation and foot structure reveal ecological transitions and lifestyles of early theropod flyers.

Morphology of keratinised toe pads and foot scales, hinging of foot joints and claw shape and size all inform the grasping ability, cursoriality and feeding mode of living birds. Presented here is morphological evidence from the fossil feet of early theropod flyers. Foot soft tissues and joint articulations are qualitatively assessed using laser-stimulated fluorescence.

Newly detected data from Haestasaurus and review of sauropod skin morphology suggests Early Jurassic origin of skin papillae.

Discovered in 1852, the scaly skin belonging to Haestasaurus becklesii was the first to be described in any non-avian dinosaur. Accordingly, it has played a crucial role in the reconstruction of sauropod integument and dinosaurs more broadly. Here, we reassess this historic specimen using Laser-Stimulated Fluorescence (LSF), revealing extensive, previously unknown regions of skin that augment prior interpretations of its integumentary morphology and taphonomy.

The dinosaur tracks of Tyrants Aisle: An Upper Cretaceous ichnofauna from Unit 4 of the Wapiti Formation (upper Campanian), Alberta, Canada.

The Wapiti Formation of northwest Alberta and northeast British Columbia, Canada, preserves an Upper Cretaceous terrestrial vertebrate fauna that is latitudinally situated between those documented further north in Alaska and those from southern Alberta and the contiguous U.S.A.