T.rex = fuzzy? (dinosaur, evolution, America, science, dragon)

[painted wolf]

Ok, so I was checking out the lastest editions of Nature when I came on these fun tid bits and figured I'd share.

A new Tyrannosaur from china was found with feather impressions. Dilong paradoxus (surprizing/strange emperor dragon). He is a small (1.6 meter) basal (primitive) fellow who still had three fingers. He is known from several fossils including one nearly complete specimin including an almost complete skull.
The feathers are simple and hair like (like in the modern kiwi) and "seem to be composed of a series of filaments joined at thier bases allong a central filliment" this is seen in other feathered dinos like Sinornithosaurs.

While the adult T. rex was probably scaly (skin impressions have been found on larger carnosaurs that show at least some had knobby scales) It is likely that when young T. rex was a fluff ball. Most likely they lost thier feathers when the got older and they were no longer needed to retain heat. Elephants also are born with more hair but loose this as they grow up.

Also found recently was a small herbivorus dinosaur Psittacosaurus who was apparently guarding a clutch of hatchlings. The adult was found on top of a group of 37 hatchlings all clustered together. The way the bones are preserved it is unlikely that the adult died after the babies. All the bodies are articulated and undamaged, save the adult who underwent some weathering and damage during preperation. Most of the young look like they are facing tword the adult. It is uncerten what killed them although it must have been quick. Sand slide, a burrow colapse or flooding or burial by volcanic debris? Either way this marks the first 'hard' evidence that plant eating dinosaurs cared for thier young, much like birds and crocodilians do today.

anyway I thought these were fun and figured I'd share. enjoy

wa:do

[painted wolf]

more dino-bird links...

a new dino just found died sleeping in a bird posture with head tucked under its "wing"
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/3740456.stm

The first bird embryo found with feather impressions preserved, showing that this early bird was born fully feathered and quick to leave the nest.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/3762626.stm

Also there is some buzz that a new four winged 'bird/dino' has been found. But nothing has been published as of yet.

wa:do

[Bright-ness' Shadow]

Also there is some buzz that a new four winged 'bird/dino' has been found. But nothing has been published as of yet.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/3762626.stm
Four-winged bird

In a separate development, a new fossil bird discovered in China may shed light on a controversial theory of the origin of flight.

Some scientists think birds went through a "four-winged" stage in their evolution before the tail evolved its current aerodynamic shape, freeing the legs from flight duties.

In the journal Nature, Fucheng Zhang and Zhonghe Zhou of the Chinese Academy of Sciences in Beijing describe a fossilised bird from Early Cretaceous times which has very long feathers on its legs.

The bird, which belongs to a group of early birds known as enantiornithines, is between 145 million and 125 million years old.

The feathers could be "remnants of earlier long, aerodynamic leg feathers, in keeping with the hypothesis that birds went through a four-winged stage during the evolution of flight", say the researchers.

Palaeontologists have uncovered evidence of a four-winged feathered dinosaur called Microraptor. The squirrel-sized creature used the long feathers on all four of its limbs to glide or parachute from tree to tree.

[Dinogrrl]

I think it's quite possible that tyrannosaurids had fluff in their early years. At least, in Asia. I'm not so sure this would have been a world-wide event, but it's very hard to tell that, because the rocks in the West are not conducive to soft part impressions.

I'm actually not a big fan of the 'all dinosaurs were fluffy!' theory, but I do think it's quite possible.

I just read in a German magazine about some feathered dinosaurs (or tried to read... XD). It had a chart showing the evolution/growth of feathers, and what kinds of feathers would have been found on what kinds of dinosaurs. It was a really nice description. Um...it's the Spektrum magazine...I don't know much more than that XD;; I don't know German.

[painted wolf]

If Tyrannosaurids had fluff in Asia then it is a good bet they had it in America. There isn't a real significant difference between Asian and American Tyrannosaurids.

T.rex and the other 'super predators' probably didn't have fluff in adulthood. The reason being that at that size insulation isn't an issue. Elephants and other large mammals for instance.

Idealy I'd like to see a Ornithopod with evidence of feathers.

then you could realy say that 'all dinosaurs were fluffy'. In the mean time the evidence is pretty good that Theropods from the Ceolosaurs on were more likely than not to have at least some fluff.

wa:do

[No*s]

Ah, nifty. Thanks PW .

[Seyorni]

Interesting that the terrestrial archosaurs sported feathers, while the birdlike pterosaurs were furred.

[painted wolf]

Not all terestrial Archosaurs mind you. So far the only evidence comes from Theropods.

This could be one of two things that the precurser to the dinofuzz/pterosaur fuzz may have been common to thier last shared ancestor. We would have to find an earlier Archosaur to confirm this one.
Or it could be a matter of covergent evolution, like the ear bones in Monotremes and the ear bones of the other mammals.

The Pterosaur had no need of complex feathers, they already had aerodynamics. The fuzz was simply for insulation and had no need to get more complex. Naturally we don't have fuzz from the later Pterosaurs due to the way the specimins have been preserved.

wa:do

[Dinogrrl]

Well, the only difference between Asian and Western Tyrannosaurs is their location :}~. A wolf in America, while being the same species (or a very similar species) as a wolf in Europe, is quite different.

[Seyorni]

Keep in mind that the landmasses 100,000,000 years ago didn't have the same configuratiou they do today. "East" and "West" were often ten meters apart.