The term “peacocking” caught on over the last couple of decades as one of those pickup-artist concepts that’s just as embarrassing to explain as it is to do. Some guy walks into a bar wearing a neon zebra-print jacket and a fur hat so people notice him. Intrigued by this alien freak who just walked in, hoping they can be the lucky one who gets to learn who this mysterious creature truly is, deep down in their soul, the theory goes that some will flock to this attention seeker, their wild outfit acting as a venue-wide icebreaker.
That strategy is way older than previously thought. Researchers, publishing their findings in PLOS One, recently analyzed a 121-million-year-old fossil of a newly identified bird species called Plumadraco bankoorum, a tiny bird all about the size of a robin but with huge tail feathers almost twice the length of its body. Scientists think those feathers were for attracting mates through elaborate visual displays, like the creepy neon zebra-print jacket-and-fur-hat guy whose face has grown immune to slaps.
Scientists Found a Fossil That Proves Peacocking Is Older Than Anyone Needed It to Be
The fossil was discovered in China’s Shandong Tianyu Museum, where researcher Alex Clark spotted it among hundreds of other specimens. What caught his attention immediately were the absurdly long feathers trailing behind the bird like a pair of drumsticks popping out of its butt. Altogether, the fossil looks like a child’s sketch of an ant’s head, or maybe a ball of yarn with knitting needles stepped into it. At one point, it was a beautiful, stately bird.
Using mass spectrometry, researchers figured out that the feathers were likely dark brown or black with an iridescent blue sheen and were structurally designed for flicking and swaying to show off their beautiful plumage. The researchers think the bird belonged to the enantiornithines, a massive group of prehistoric birds that was wiped out alongside the dinosaurs 66 million years ago. The finding suggests that birds with beautiful feather displays they show off to attract mates is not a new phenomenon, and it’s likely been around for at least 120 million years, possibly much longer.
But ironically, it just took us a long time to notice.
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