Extinct creatures-- Longisquama (Patreon)

Today's Triassic Weirdo is a weird boy, indeed. Longisquama insignis is a reptile of some kind, we don't really know which kind, that has a distinctive row of seven feather-like scales along its back. The structures aren't feathers, as these little guys are probably not very closely related to birds and actual feathers wouldn't evolve until the Jurassic, many many millions of years later. But they are surprisingly feather-like and very, very mysterious.

As for what these structures evolved for, it's anyone's guess. Probably signaling to other animals? Maybe it made them look very big? Maybe it's a Romance Thing and the whole species is just one gender of some other species? Some folks theorized that maybe there were actually two sets of these "feathers" that acted as gliding "wings" but that was a little too silly, eve for an animal like this. Unlike with Icarosaurus, we don't have any modern examples or multiple instances of this sort of thing evolving, so for now this is a mystery that will remain unsolved.

Here's hoping we keep finding fossils until we get to the bottom of it, though, because I'm dying to know.