Dinosaur with raccoon-like bandit mask identified by scientists

After a year-long study, conducted on three well-preserved fossil specimens of Sinosauropteryx, a group of researchers from Bristol University has finally concluded that the extinct creature was having a banded tail and 'counter-shading', a quality which makes animals dark on top and lighter on their underside.

Now a days, the bandit mask pattern is present in several animals like raccoons, badgers and nuthatch.

Talking about their latest findings, published in Current Biology, co-author Fiann Smithwick, from Bristol University said, "This is the first time it's been seen in a dinosaur and, to my knowledge, any extinct animal that shows colour bands," reported BBC News.

However, scientists have not succeeded yet to find the actual reason behind this bandit mask pattern.

Scientists believe that Sinosauropteryx could not have held the long tail in a perfectly horizontal position for long periods and this may the quite possible reason of their banded tail.

According to scientists, Sinosauropteryx lived between 133 and 120 million years ago in north-eastern China. It was a small feathered dinosaur having a long tail and short arms. The longest specimen is about a metre (three-and-a-half feet) in length.

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"In raccoons and badgers, it's an advertisement of the fact that they're aggressive, if you're a predator and you mess with them, they're going to fight back," Smithwick was quoted while talking about their research.

"We think that's probably unlikely in Sinosauropteryx because there's no real anatomical evidence that it could have defended itself well. It's a small dinosaur and quite gracile (lightly built). It would probably have been fast-moving, but in terms of a physical deterrent that you'd need to back up a signal like that, it doesn't really have one," Smithwick stated.

"If you have a non-honest signal like that, you're generally found out pretty quickly in evolutionary terms," he added further.

"The analogy is athletes who paint a dark stripe under their eyes... it's really beneficial for increasing your visual acuity," Dr Smithwick told reporters.

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"One of these fossils was looked at about seven years ago, by a team that found pigment preserved in the feathers - this was in the form of melanin. This was a particular type of melanin that's known to give 'ginger' or 'rusty-brown' colours in living animals," BBC quoted Dr Smithwick.