Jurassic Aviary
Today’s post comes to you courtesy of a recent news article that can be read in its entirety here.
In short, some boffins were digging around in Southern Germany, came across an extremely well preserved dinosaur fossil. The young Sciurumimus albersdoerferi , measured in at 72cm and is a kind of fanged predator.
The key point of today’s topic is the discovery that the fossil showed evidence of, ‘primitive fuzzy feathers that are more akin to hair. (sic) These were over its front, below the belly, and back as well as the tail, suggesting the animal’s whole body could have been covered in feathers.’
The idea that birds evolved from dinosaurs dates back to Charles Darwin’s day. However, the idea that dinosaurs themselves may be feathered is a much more controversial subject.
Perhaps people don’t like the idea of suddenly thinking of their T-Rex as looking a bit like Big Bird?
And yet this is far from the only evidence of feathered dinosaurs.
That source of all homework research, Wikipedia, lists 34 dino species with recorded evidence of feathers, including the suggestion that Tyrannosaurus was in fact in possession of plumaceous feathers.
How do you feel about your mental image of a T-Rex going from reptilian to something like THIS! No, wait. That’s not right. I meant THIS! Hang on, hang on. Linking is hard. Maybe more like THIS! Okay, I’ve got it now. This is one imagination’s idea on what a feathered T Rex would look like.
So would feathered dinosaurs be awesome? Fabulous? Or just a bit wierd? For creatures that haven’t existed in ages (other than Crocodiles), dinos have a pretty major media presence in movies, TV and assorted fiction.
Is it all wrong? Is our community concept of dinosaurs inaccurate because it lacks feathers? Is a feathered T-Rex more or less scary? What media references come to mind when you think of dinosaurs in pop culture?
Feathered dinosaurs?
I’m a bit down about that.
Feathered dinosaurs would seem a bit flighty to me.
And until there’s conclusive proof one way or the other, the scientists are just going to have to wing it.
You guys are on fire this morning!
Just a bit of fluff on a Friday.
Which leads, of course, to the big question:
Why did the dinosaur cross the road?
Because chickens hadn’t been invented.
New children’s show – Jurassic Street, featuring F**king Big Dinosaur, a bright yellow dinosaur who is always asking questions (such as, ‘Why should I cross the road?’) and who has an imaginary friend, Snuffleupasaurus.
Great post, Beez. I’m looking forward to reading the links when I boot up my PC after putting DJ down for his morning sleep.
I’m not going to lose any sleep if dinosaurs are found to be mostly feathered. The Tyrannosaurus Rex and the Velociraptor will still be scary and the Apatosaurus (although I still think of it as the Brontosaurus) will still be my favourite.
That’s one of the good things about science, the more info we discover, the more complete the picture. And there is always going to be something new to discover.
I have to agree with that.
Mind you, the idea of Tyrannosaurus Rex preening his feathers does give me a giggle.
One of my all-time favourite Far Side cartoons – the real reason dinosaurs became extinct.
Remember Pluto? Poor poor Pluto.
Can’t science just leave things alone? I want to live in a world with Pluto the Planet and scary scaley dinosaurs. Possibly with ‘Pluto – The Dinosaur Planet!’ Man that’d be rad.
Can’t science just leave things alone? I want to live in a world with Pluto the Planet and scary scaley dinosaurs. Possibly with ‘Pluto – The Dinosaur Planet!’ Man that’d be rad.
This perfectly expresses how I feel about the issue!
I’m going to need to see more evidence than a few patches of fur, hair, feathers, whatever on a fossil before I’ll accept that they might not have been as lizard-skinned as we’ve always believed.
For all we know, this one with patches here and there might have simply been a messy eater and those patches came from its last meal.
Or that particular species might have built a nest out of feathery things. Dinner AND a bed, all in one.
Maybe they hatched with feathery skin that irritated the mouth and tongue of predators, making them less than tasty until they were old enough to defend themselves properly.
Or maybe that one was an evolutionary step in response to Global Warming, in which case we’d better start figuring out how we’ll deal with being feathered ourselves.
Regardless, just because one species had something almost-kinda-something-like feathers on its fossil doesn’t give enough support to say that ALL dinosaurs were like that.
You know the way we look back on the people of history and say “LOL! Those idiots thought the world was flat!”
People in the future will look back and say “LOT*! Those idiots thought that dinosaurs had scales!”
*Laughing Out Telepathically. That sh!t’s going to happen. John Wyndham was right.
OK here is my uneducated question. I am asking this genuinely as I don’t know the answer, so please don’t be too derisive. Why do we think dinosaurs were scaly? Is there some kind of scientific evidence, such as we are now discovering regarding feathers and hair, that let us to conclusively believe that dinosaurs were scaly?
And who is to say there weren’t scaly and non-scaly types? Today we have birds, dogs, cats, lizards, humans, ALL kinds of animals. Even amongst those species there are hairy, less hairy, or mostly hairless varieties. Why is that such a stretch that dinos were the same? Why do they have to be one or the other?
I think it’s probably because dinosaurs were originally thought to be reptiles, just big lizards. Even though evidence has now shown that to be pretty much not the case and that they were warm-blooded like birds, the idea that they had scales still lingers.
Duh…because we all watched ‘The Land Before Time’ growing up. Tv does not lie. Hence dinosaurs have scales…
…”Five orphan dinosaurs travel the ruins of their world, while grieving the loss of their families and banding together to face the odds of survival.”
Oh gosh I have been wanting to watch them again! “Don’t step on a crack, or you’ll fall and break your back!”
:O!!! I’m going to watch it today.
Haha, nothing Gen Y hipsters love more than revisiting beloved childhood tv shows.
I’m not a hipster. I just never grew out of these stories.
+ 1
Never met a hipster yet who admitted it…(myself included)
On the other hand, I’ve admitted it and been informed that I’m really not hipster at all.
Now, I’m aiming for being gangsta.
Unless I’m the first ever woman to be a stay at home mother and wife who gets around in jeans, a plain t-shirt, and slippers – or at least think I’m cool and original for breaking the mould of fashion expectations – pretty sure I’m not a hipster.
And you know, like old things because they’re cool. Retro TVs and glasses man!
I think it’s so interesting!
When thinking about dinosaurs with feathers this is the image I get.
I know it’s from World of Warcraft but some of the skeletal structuring reminds me of dinosaurs for some reason, always has.
I don’t care what sort of stuff you’ve got covering your back, if you can hunt me down and eat me I’m prepared to respect your place on the food chain and invest in good running shoes or potentially a ladder.
Those sneaky bastards can open doors, just you wait until they start climbing ladders haha
Haven’t they always said that reptiles and birds are closely related? I know my avian vet dealt with both reptiles and birds. So wouldn’t you think it would be easy to assume that they evolved from the same sort of creatures?
My Cockatiel doesn’t have much in common with a crocodile, but only a few human are distinguishable from Apes and apparently, they are our closest relatives.
It’s been millions of years and anything could have happened but I still hate snakes and I’m not an apple person either.
Genetically, birds are most closely related to reptiles.