Posted on 09/17/2005 3:35:39 AM PDT by SeaLion
THE popular image of Tyrannosaurus rex and other killer dinosaurs may have to be changed as a scientific consensus emerges that many were covered with feathers.
Most predatory dinosaurs such as tyrannosaurs and velociraptors have usually been depicted in museums, films and books as covered in a thick hide of dull brown or green skin. The impression was of a killer stripped of adornment in the name of hunting efficiency.
This week, however, a leading expert on dinosaur evolution will tell the British Association, the principal conference of British scientists, that this image is wrong.
Gareth Dyke, a palaeontologist of University College Dublin, will tell the BA Festival of Science being held in the city that most such creatures were coated with delicate feathery plumage that could even have been multi-coloured. Fossil evidence that such dinosaurs were feathered is now irrefutable.
The way these creatures are depicted can no longer be considered scientifically accurate, he said. All the evidence is that they looked more like birds than reptiles. Tyrannosaurs might have resembled giant chicks.
The latest visualisation suggests that parts of Walking with Dinosaurs, the acclaimed BBC series, cannot be seen as scientifically valid. Similar criticisms might also be levelled at the Hollywood blockbuster Jurassic Park.
The Natural History Museum in London, which has a popular exhibition of robot dinosaurs, conceded this weekend that some of its permanent displays may have to be adapted to reflect the new findings.
The feather revelation follows a series of discoveries in fossil beds at Liaoning in northeast China where a volcanic eruption buried many dinosaurs alive. It also cut off the oxygen that would otherwise have rotted them away.
Some theropod (beast-footed) dinosaurs were preserved complete with feathery plumage. Theropod is the name given to predatory creatures that walked upright on two legs, balanced by a long tail.
The feathered finds include an early tyrannosaur, a likely ancestor of Tyrannosaurus rex, two small flying dinosaurs and five other predators. Feathers are thought to have evolved first to keep dinosaurs warm and only later as an aid to flight.
Such finds are significant in linking dinosaurs to modern birds. Most palaeontologists accept that birds are descended from dinosaurs but there is fierce debate over how this happened. At the Dublin conference, Dyke will present new evidence suggesting that dinosaurs evolved the ability to fly and that some even developed all four limbs into wings.
Pelicans look like pterodactyls.
Mr. Praline: 'E's not pinin'! 'E's passed on! This parrot is no more! He has ceased to be! 'E's expired and gone to meet 'is maker! 'E's a stiff! Bereft of life, 'e
rests in peace! If you hadn't nailed 'im to the perch 'e'd be pushing up the daisies! 'Is metabolic processes are now 'istory! 'E's off the twig! 'E's kicked the
bucket, 'e's shuffled off 'is mortal coil, run down the curtain and joined the bleedin' choir invisibile!!
Undoubtedly due to human interference with the atmosphere prior to the Mesozoic...
This, by no means implies that T-Rex was not a predator. Built for speed or not, because of his size, the T-Rex still had a longer stride than many of his contemporaries and could probably still outrun many. Also, the same predator = speed reasoning would sort of imply that rabbits might be predators because they are built for speed.
Another point made in the program is that T-Rex's arms are so small and don't lend themselves to grabbing and holding a meal.
With jaws the size of a T-Rex's, I think that is a moot point. Dogs, wolves don't really have 'grabbing' capability either, but they are certainly predators. It's all in the bite.
A predator doesn't have to be a great runner. He just needs to be able to run faster than his intended prey. The larger herbivores were not built for speed
It's hard to roll those barrels over a guard rail.
C'mon now. At least he didn't post another Helen Thomas pic!
Some ten or fifteen years ago, Gregory Paul published a magnificent book on predatory dinosaurs, in which all but the largest carnosaurs were depicted as being feathered. He said in his introduction that, unless the evidence proves otherwise, he would continue to portray his smaller theropods as being feathered, because he felt the evidence of their being endothermic and their close relationship with modern birds demanded it. Luckily for him, he seems to have been proven right.
as I posted last week (or so) - has anyone given thought to the CAMOUFLAGE value feathers confer? I'm certain that early feather-like adaptations of scales would have had greater impact on pattern disruption than as thermal insulation.
think camouflage, not thermal insulation.
highly invaginated and densely layered surfaces disrupt an object's outline and eat up light far more effectively than do smooth surfaces with the same pigmentation and pattern.
I believe these folks are missing a trick when they jump straight to thermal insulation for an explanation.
let's try it for (possibly) color-blind predators:
True. But I'd look like quite the idiot if I pinged the evolution list for the same article all over again.
false statement.
What predators other than other colour-sighted dinosaurs (assuming they like their bird ancestors were color-sighted,)
preyed on adult dinosaurs?
Not directly related as they weren't around yet but
Canines are not colour-sighted, how about felines?
No it isn't. In order to evolve, a species would have to add characteristics. That's the whole idea behind evolution theory. From a single cell to lungs and eyeballs, brains fingers, feet, toes, arms and legs. That's addition not subtraction.
In fact, Everything on the earth is de-volving, not evolving.
your statement:
"Evolution theory also requires that the species improve, or add characteristics."
this is false. The theory of evolution does not *require* that species *improve* OR *add* characteristics.
The theory of evolution explains how some species, through mutation and selection, become better adapted to their changing environments as well as how other species, through mutation and selection, become MALADAPTED to their changing environments.
The theory of evolution explains how some species, through mutation and selection, add characteristics as well as how other species, through mutation and selection, LOSE chartacteristics.
for more detail, I now turn you over to Ichneumon's care.
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