Jul 24, 2014 03:50 PM EDT By Russell Westerholm, UniversityHerald Reporter

Thanks to the discovery of a new dinosaur not even distantly related to any bird ancestor, scientists believe any dinosaur could have had feathers.

According to the Washington Post, the new study, published in the journal Science detailed partial skeletons of the Kulindadromeus zabaikalicus found in the Kulinda Valley in Siberia. The dinosaur was apparently five feet long, lived in the Jurassic period and was an herbivore.

The researchers noted Kulindadromeus was not at all related to an avian dinosaur, an ancestor of modern birds. Study lead author Pascal Godefroit said feathers could have ranged from bristles to the kind found in a bird flying around today.

"It's impossible that they flew," Godefroit, director of earth and life sciences at the Royal Belgian Institute of Natural Sciences, told the Washington Post. "They were bipedal and had long legs with very, very short arms."

Kulindadromeus feathers gave away two key characteristics of the dinosaur. One, its bristles indicated that the dinosaur was warm-blooded and the modern-looking ones were decorative, meaning it was a social creature.

Darla Zelenitsky, an assistant professor of geoscience at the University of Calgary, was not involved in the study though she agreed with the authors' assertion that many different dinosaurs could have had feathers.

"This discovery suggests that feathers became a useful tool early on in dinosaur evolution, whether it was for camouflage, display or insulation," Zelenitsky told the Post. "We've learned in recent years that feathers in dinosaurs were diverse in form, and evolved initially for things other than flight, but because most known feathered dinosaurs are relatively small, we still know very little about the nature or presence of feathers in larger dinosaurs."

Godefroit said his study may not be all that groundbreaking in the end because its implications are more debatable than conclusive.

"It must be proven by the discovery of fossils with preserved evidence of feathers," he said, "which is very difficult."

See Now: Covert Team Inside Newsweek Revealed as Key Players in False Human Trafficking Lawsuit