Alexei Alexeivich Harlamoff paintings

The unique fossil also offers clues about why feathers arose in the first place. Oversized DuckThe creature is a dromaeosaur — a group of small predators related to the Velociraptor — which traveled on two legs. Since the creature walked and most certainly didn't fly, Mark Norell, chairman of paleontology at the Museum of Natural History in New York and an author of the report published this week in Nature, says the 2-foot-long fossil proves that feathers first developed for warmth rather than flight."This specimen really nails it," says Norell. Warmth, he says, "is what the origin of feathers was really all about." To the naked eye, downy impressions can be seen sprouting from all over the animal's body.