Earlier this week, paleontologists published a study in the journal Science that may upend the traditional image of dinosaurs — the terrible lizards may have been a lot more downy, colorful and cuddly than previously thought.

Although feathered dinosaurs have been a known and accepted fact by scientists for years, the only fossil evidence of feathered dinosaurs existed in one family, the theropods. This order of carnivorous dinosaurs included the Tyrannosaurus Rex, the velociraptor, as well as the ancestors of modern-day birds, and was thought to be the only group of dinosaurs who exhibited this novel feature.

While working in Siberia, scientists unearthed dinosaur fossils dating back to the Jurassic that showed evidence of downy filaments on the head and abdomen and complex feather structures located on its humerus, femur, and tibia, as well as exhibited signs of scales on its hindlimbs and base of the tail. However, the intriguing part of the discovery is the taxonomic classification of the species was an ornithischian. The ornithischian dinosaurs were herbivores that lived in large packs, the most well known include the triceratops, the stegasaurus, the anklyosaurus and the duck-billed dinosaurs.

“I was really amazed when I saw this,” said Pascal Godefroit, a Belgian paleontologist and lead author of the study. “Our new find clinches it: all dinosaurs had feathers, or at least the potential to sprout feathers.”

The study suggests complex feather-like structures existed throughout dinosaur groups other than theropods; that they were potentially a widespread feature among all dinosaurs; and even the earliest dinosaurs may have exhibited such feather-like structures.

“This is the first time birdlike feathers have been found in dinosaurs that are not closely related to birds,” said Darla Zelenitsky, a paleontologist at the University of Calgary in Canada, who was not involved in the research. “This unexpectedly reveals that such feathers would likely have been present in most groups of dinosaurs,” Zelenitsky told Live Science in an email.

Dinosaurs used their feather-like structures for a variety of purposes: as down to keep warm, to attract mates and communicate, and some of the most complex structures supported some forms of flight.