Scientists recently announced the discovery of a small,bird-like dinosaur from China which had unusual, colorful feathers.The scientists named the dinosaur Caihong,the Mandarin word for rainbow.They discovered the nearly completeand almost entirely undamaged fossil in Hebei Province.Microscopic structures in the fossil suggestthat the creature had wide, shiny feathers.The feathers mostly covered the dinosaur's head and upper body.The colors of those feather would have appearedto change depending on how the light hit them.The colorful dinosaur lived 161 million years agoduring the Jurassic Period of earth's history.Chad Eliason is an evolutionary biologistwith the Field Museum in Chicago, Illinois.He helped write the study announcing the discoveryin the scientific publication Nature Communications.Eliason told the Reuters news service that the discovery"suggests a more colorful Jurassic World than we previously imagined."The scientists used powerful microscopes to identify the remainsof the cell structures responsible for the apparent color of the feathers.The shape of those structures appears to have influencedwhat color the feathers would have.Round-shaped structures in the Caihong fossil showthat it had feathers similar to that of a modern day hummingbird.Much of Caihong's body had dark feathers.The shiny, color-changing feathers covered its head and neck.The dinosaur had many bird-like qualities.But researchers doubt that it could actually fly.Its feathers could have served the purposeof gaining the attention of sexual partnerswhile also providing protection from heat and cold.Caihong was two-legged and had a long, narrow head with sharp teeth.It had boney crests above its eyes,and it hunted other, smaller animals for food.Scientists say many dinosaurs had feathers.Birds evolved from small feathered dinosaurs near the end of the Jurassic Period.Caihong had two kinds of feathers.It also is the earliest-known creature with feathersthat did not have the same shape on both sides.This is a physical quality that modern birds haveand use to direct themselves while flying.The unevenly shaped feathers on Caihong were on its tail.This suggests that tail feathers, not arm feathers,were first used to improve movementthrough the air in flying dinosaurs, scientists said.Xing Xu is a paleontologist with the Chinese Academy of Sciences.Xing Xu said, "It is extremely similar to some early birds such as Archaeopteryx."Archaeopteryx is the earliest known bird.It is believed to have lived 150 million years ago."To be honest, I am not sure what function the feathers have," Xing Xu added."And I don't think that you can completely exclude the possibilitythat the feathers helped the animal to get in the air."The dinosaur's full scientific name is Caihong juji,which means "rainbow with a big crest."