At roughly 40cm in height, the Caihong Juji was a very small dinosaur indeed. Found in the Hebei province of China, fossilised feathers of the Late-Jurassic era dinosaur revealed that the creature had feathers on its head, wings, and tail that were iridescent, with colours that shimmered in the light.

It figures that this tiny theropod dinosaur was given the name ‘Caihong’, which means ‘rainbow’ in Mandarin. Aside from giving the Jurassic period a splash of colour, the fossil records of the Caihong juji are fascinating because they show features that are both ancient and modern. While the bony crest is usually seen in dinosaurs from earlier eras, the feathers are the first known occurrence of iridescence that can be found in a variety of hummingbird species today.

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