Rise of the dinosaurs traced back to their adaptation to cold

Covering of feathers left them able to cope when other creatures died off in mass extinction event, scientists say

Fossil hunters have traced the rise of the dinosaurs back to the freezing winters the beasts endured while roaming around the far north.

Footprints of the animals and stone deposits from north-west China suggest dinosaurs became adapted to the cold in polar regions before a mass extinction event paved the way for their reign at the end of the Triassic.

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