Feathered dinosaur fossil, discovered in China. The head is at top. Imprints of feathers are seen around the body and the forelimbs. More than a thousand feathered dinosaur fossils have been found in the Liaoning province of China since the mid 1990s. They date from about 125 million years ago in the lower Cretaceous period. They are dromeosaurs, or raptors, a small group within the theropod group of carnivorous dinosaurs. Some scientists think that these specimens could be the missing link between dinosaurs and birds.