The Dinosaur Feather Mystery Pt.5

Ok, this is a little disturbing..

This is now the second final part...
More cute little dinosaurs and fossil evidence.

disclaimer: I don't own the rights to this documentary which are property of the Discovery channel and it's respected autors.


Epidexipteryx hui, the feathered fossil dinosaur older than Archaeopteryx! http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/loom/2008/10/22/shake-your-jurassic-tail-fe...

Category:

Education

Tags:

• dinosaur
• feather
• mystery
• bird
• evolution
• fossil
• flight

[Daruqe]

WOAH WOAH WOAH!

What makes them think Tyrannosaurus had feathers???

[pienipaha]

@Daruqe

Smaller, bipedal dinosaurs did have protofeathers, which is why saying T.rex etc. had them too is not in any ways a ridiculous idea. (Though I don't think it's safe to say any of them had actual feathers.)

After all, the ancestors of both Tyrannosaurids and birds were most likely protofeathered small dinosaurs. Rex-line might have kept them or dropped them over time - without evidence we can't tell, but full fledged feathers... don't think so.

So yeah, I agree with you there.

[pienipaha]

@Daruqe

But large animals today didn't lose their fur coat because they're big - it's because of their living conditions. (Water dwelling ancestors. Marine animals tend to be hairless or their coat is short and smooth.)

It is very possible rex and friends lost the protodeathers over time but I don't see why they couldn't have had short fuzz or patches of protofeathers for attracting mates and/or for camoflauge much like smaller raptor related dinos are often described with.

[acerb45666555]

6:07...........wow! amazing!! it makes sense too. a cold blooded gliding (lizard-bird) would need feathered stabalizers on its legs for short fast leaps! question is, why do modern flying reptiles(birds) have no leg "wings"?

[pienipaha]

Actually, I remember reading about theropods likely beind endothermic.

Also, very possibly Microraptor was not the ancestor of modern birds, but another try out of evolution for flight.

Remember, documentaries can be enlightening, but they are mostly for entertainment purposes. (Stick to peer review and expert texts - not to mention as new material as you can possibly find. This doc is all ready quite oldish compared to the advances we had in this field of study.)

[MWcrazyhorse]

wait what? were are all the creationist yelling 'god did it'. I need some argument going on. its unusualy silent and dull without the nuts. I almost miss em. ALMOST but not quite.

[pienipaha]

I got a few vids that have more than enough of them. Quite handily making up for the lack of creotards on other videos. Personally I am glad if they wouldn't attack all my clips with their clichéd bs, as after 5 years I'm quite sick of it. It's not fun pwning them anymore - just annoying.

[TheSanityInspector]

They had so much in common with birds, wow. Imagine if these theropods could have been taught to speak, like parrots. Picture Jurassic Park, with the raptors chasing the people while squawking, "I'm a pretty boy!"

[CHAS1422]

I checked out the wing on a baked turkey, and saw the hand. I lost my appetite for food and gained a better one for knowlege. Instead of feeding my primitive gut, I fed my brain. But alas I became delerious with hunger and ate my prey, like a velociraptor would have eaten his.

[thybigballs]

was this the last part?

[dingodavid]

Is it possible that seperate branches of feathered therepods diverged early on in dinosaur history, with 'ground up' (jumping) species, and 'top down' (gliding) species, both evolving at the same time? A kind of convergent/divergent evolution?

[frostfirei]

@Daruqe

A T-Rex fossil, with obvious feathers.

[puncheex]

@acerb45666555: Apparently they either weren't on the ToL stem that invented them, or having them proved to be not a good adaptation for their environment (which may have changed. Fickle things, environments.)

[puncheex]

@ORCA4312: Oh, I don't know. Adding a light faring to a bicycle can often make it faster and more efficient. Not that I'd ever use that as a reason, though. It becomes a pain when you have the bike propped on it's kickstand.

[puncheex]

@ORCA4312: One would think that perhaps a derived group of animals might more closely match a brotherly group, but I see your point, and touche`.

[ORCA4312]

@puncheex But not from birds, apparently.

[ORCA4312]

@eiizumi Yes. I think that is the likely progression.

[ORCA4312]

No way did feathers make raptors run faster. Jump higher? Sure, that is a legitimate hypothesis. It was that and/or developed from gliding animals in the trees - like 'flying' squirrels.

[spiderweb20]

@Daruqe there's been more recent discoveries, that would show that the baby t-rex would have probably had down on it's body, which fell off as it got older. So an adult T-Rex was most likely featherless.