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Siberian Discovery Suggests Almost All Dinosaurs Were Feathered

A new study published in Science (abstract) suggests that most dinosaurs were covered with feathers. This conclusion was drawn after the discovery of fossils belonging to a 1.5-meter-long, two-legged dinosaur called Kulindadromeus zabaikalicus. "The fossils, which included six skulls and many more bones, greatly broaden the number of families of dinosaurs sporting feathers—downy, ribboned, and thin ones in this case—indicating that plumes evolved from the scales that covered earlier reptiles, probably as insulation." Its distinctiveness from earlier theropod fossil discoveries suggests that feathered dinosaurs appeared much further back in history than previously thought. Paleontologist Stephen Brusatte said, "This does mean that we can now be very confident that feathers weren't just an invention of birds and their closest relatives, but evolved much deeper in dinosaur history. I think that the common ancestor of dinosaurs probably had feathers, and that all dinosaurs had some type of feather, just like all mammals have some type of hair."

90 of 139 comments (clear)

  1. Whelp. by An+Ominous+Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    Time to remake Jurassic Park. And while he's at it, Speilberg can change all the guns to flashlights!

    1. Re:Whelp. by Savage-Rabbit · · Score: 2

      Time to remake Jurassic Park. And while he's at it, Speilberg can change all the guns to flashlights!

      Nah, with all the T-Rexes looking like chickens it just won't be the same... although... just imagine the Kentucky fired drumsticks.

      --
      Only to idiots, are orders laws.
      -- Henning von Tresckow
    2. Re:Whelp. by Jason+Levine · · Score: 3, Funny

      You think a T-Rex "chicken" wouldn't be scary? Imagine a 15 foot tall, 40 foot long bird of prey with a 4 foot jaw and 9 inch long teeth. Your average adult human would be finger food - a bite or two and then gone. This gets even more terrifying if you imagine them as giant cockatoos (and if you know how nasty cockatoos can be).

      --
      My sci-fi novel, Ghost Thief, is now available from Amazon.com.
    3. Re:Whelp. by tont0r · · Score: 1

      Time to remake Jurassic Park. And while he's at it, Speilberg can change all the guns to flashlights!

      That doesnt sound very scary. Sounds more like... a six foot turkey!

    4. Re:Whelp. by roc97007 · · Score: 1

      Time to remake Jurassic Park. And while he's at it, Speilberg can change all the guns to flashlights!

      Nah, with all the T-Rexes looking like chickens it just won't be the same... although... just imagine the Kentucky fired drumsticks.

      ...but having the T-Rexes looking like chickens, and changing their roar to something less intimidating would fit well with changing all the guns to flashlights.

      --
      Oliver's law of assumed responsibility: If you're seen fixing it, you will be blamed for breaking it.
    5. Re:Whelp. by cyberchondriac · · Score: 3, Funny

      I'm trying to imagine a deep, chest rumbling, fear inducing, "BOKKKKK"


      Nope.

      --

      Look back up at my post, now look back down, you're on the Internet. Now look back up. I'm a signature.
    6. Re:Whelp. by es330td · · Score: 1

      My son (currently 6) is obsessed with a creature called the Terror Bird. Standing ten feet tall they were apex predators in South America. I would be plenty scared of a meat eating bird that big.

    7. Re:Whelp. by kencurry · · Score: 1

      fat kid: "... a 6-ft tall turkey, big deal!"

      Dr. Grant: "...just remember, you are alive when they start to eat you, so try to show a little respect, okay?"

      --
      sigs are for losers (except to point out that sigs are for losers)
    8. Re:Whelp. by DreadPiratePizz · · Score: 2

      Light heeeeeeeerrrrrrrrr. LIGHT HEEEERRRRRRRR.

    9. Re: Whelp. by raind · · Score: 1

      Time to remake the creation story as well.

      --
      Get up!
    10. Re:Whelp. by Dutch+Gun · · Score: 1

      I wonder how much resistance a theory like this gets just because feathered dinosaurs wouldn't look nearly as cool as the ones we see pictured today? The emotional part of my brain finds itself not wanting to spoil my childhood images of what dinosaurs looked like by pasting silly-looking feathers all over them, even while the intellectual part is berating it for being silly. I suppose it's the same sort of phenomenon as the outcry over Pluto being "demoted" from planet status. Humans are funny.

      --
      Irony: Agile development has too much intertia to be abandoned now.
    11. Re:Whelp. by X-Ray+Artist · · Score: 1

      Imagine the size of the Beer Can to barbecue it!!

      --
      I would have a sig but I am too busy updating programs and restarting my computer
    12. Re:Whelp. by oldmac31310 · · Score: 1
      How about the more recently extinct moa? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M...

      Plenty big!

      --
      http://www.acetonestudio.com
    13. Re:Whelp. by An+Ominous+Coward · · Score: 2
      You can always take the So Long and Thanks for All the Fish view:

      Mrs E. Kapelsen of Boston, Massachusetts was an elderly lady, indeed, she felt her life was nearly at an end. She had seen a lot of it, been puzzled by some, but, she was a little uneasy to feel at this late stage, bored by too much. It had all been very pleasant, but perhaps a little too explicable, a little too routine.

      With a sigh she flipped up the little plastic window shutter and looked out over the wing.

      At first she thought she ought to call the stewardess, but then she thought no, damn it, definitely not, this was for her, and her alone.

      By the time her two inexplicable people finally slipped back off the wing and tumbled into the slipstream she had cheered up an awful lot.

      She was mostly immensely relieved to think that virtually everything that anybody had ever told her was wrong.

      Or the obligatory: http://xkcd.com/1104/

    14. Re:Whelp. by oldmac31310 · · Score: 1

      I was pretty confused when suddenly dinosaurs were considered to have been all sorts of different colours. When I was a kid they were pretty much green, greyish or brown depending on the illustration. Now they are thought to have been orange, purple, blue etc. AND covered in feathers! What next! I know. They could talk, and sing and dance. Yes!

      --
      http://www.acetonestudio.com
    15. Re:Whelp. by StripedCow · · Score: 1

      You think a T-Rex "chicken" wouldn't be scary?

      And imagine what a Jurassic geek (*) would look like.

      (*) geek: a carnival performer often billed as a wild man whose act usually includes biting the head off a live chicken.

      --
      If Pandora's box is destined to be opened, *I* want to be the one to open it.
    16. Re:Whelp. by shadowrat · · Score: 5, Interesting

      You think a T-Rex "chicken" wouldn't be scary? Imagine a 15 foot tall, 40 foot long bird of prey with a 4 foot jaw and 9 inch long teeth. Your average adult human would be finger food - a bite or two and then gone. This gets even more terrifying if you imagine them as giant cockatoos (and if you know how nasty cockatoos can be).

      I worked a good many years in an exotic pet store. My area of expertise was reptiles and, in my time, i was bitten by all manner of things that most people don't want to get bitten by. Of all the animals i would deal with, the birds were the things that really terrified me.

      Reptiles, yeah, you gotta repect them, esspecially the highly venemous ones. But, they are predictable and easily outsmarted. Birds can be fierce opponents. They are intelligence combined with effective weapons. They can deduce it's better to ignore the leather glove and aim for the exposed forearm. There was one macaw that i swear would pretend to be nice just to lull me into a vulnerable position.

      Not a day goes by that i'm not thankful that i live in a world where i only have to worry about sharks, big cats, bears, wolves, and reptiles. I would be terrified having to worry about a bird that might get me.

    17. Re:Whelp. by Nethead · · Score: 1

      I have an African Grey, I've seen him humble a pit bull.

      --
      -- I have a private email server in my basement.
    18. Re:Whelp. by MisterSquid · · Score: 1

      I wonder how much resistance a theory like this gets just because feathered dinosaurs wouldn't look nearly as cool as the ones we see pictured today?

      For me, the resistance comes when I look at the large reptiles of today which are descended from dinosaurs.They don't have feathers.

      --
      blog
    19. Re:Whelp. by ganjadude · · Score: 1

      in jurassic russia, giant chicken eats YOU!

      --
      have you seen my sig? there are many others like it but none that are the same
    20. Re:Whelp. by ganjadude · · Score: 1

      i dont know, I think feathered dinos can look much cooler than the original reptillian dinos. just look at The comparison of the raptor from the reptillian view to the feathered renditions now

      --
      have you seen my sig? there are many others like it but none that are the same
    21. Re:Whelp. by radtea · · Score: 2

      For me, the resistance comes when I look at the large reptiles of today which are descended from dinosaurs.They don't have feathers.

      Which large reptiles are those? And which dinosaurs are they descended from? And how did dinosaurs, which were all killed at the KT boundary, manage to have descendents?

      Dinosaurs are reptiles with their legs under their bodies. This makes them distinct from other reptiles (the kinds we have today, which are not descended from dinosaurs) which have their legs off to the side.

      Mammals also managed the legs-under-the-body trick, and birds (which are descended from dinosaurs, unlike all modern reptiles, none of which are descended from dinosaurs, what with dinosaurs all being extinct without issue at the KT boundary.)

      --
      Blasphemy is a human right. Blasphemophobia kills.
    22. Re:Whelp. by the+gnat · · Score: 1

      large reptiles of today which are descended from dinosaurs.

      Uh, nope. Crocodilians for certain predate dinosaurs and evolved in parallel. I'm pretty sure the other big lizards did too.

    23. Re:Whelp. by jaided · · Score: 1

      Your average adult human would be finger food - a bite or two and then gone..

      I'm fairly sure that "Human McNuggets" is the Palaeontological term for this.

    24. Re:Whelp. by PopeRatzo · · Score: 2

      Imagine a 15 foot tall, 40 foot long bird of prey with a 4 foot jaw and 9 inch long teeth.

      You wanna watch how you talk about my wife.

      --
      You are welcome on my lawn.
    25. Re:Whelp. by Savage-Rabbit · · Score: 2

      I wonder how much resistance a theory like this gets just because feathered dinosaurs wouldn't look nearly as cool as the ones we see pictured today? The emotional part of my brain finds itself not wanting to spoil my childhood images of what dinosaurs looked like by pasting silly-looking feathers all over them, even while the intellectual part is berating it for being silly. I suppose it's the same sort of phenomenon as the outcry over Pluto being "demoted" from planet status. Humans are funny.

      If anything they'd look cooler with feathers. It also explains a whole lot, like how they were able to survive in the Arctic.

      --
      Only to idiots, are orders laws.
      -- Henning von Tresckow
    26. Re:Whelp. by Hamsterdan · · Score: 1

      Sheldon would be so terrified...

      --
      I've got better things to do tonight than die.
    27. Re:Whelp. by marcosdumay · · Score: 2

      What happened to Slashdot lately?

      There's a xkcd for that: http://xkcd.com/1104/

    28. Re:Whelp. by Rakarra · · Score: 1

      I have an African Grey, I've seen him humble a pit bull.

      Was it with his withering sarcasm?

      (African Greys are quite chatty and very intelligent, for those unfamiliar with the breed).

    29. Re:Whelp. by Jason+Levine · · Score: 2

      My in-laws have a cockatoo thus my choice of that bird. (They used to have two but one died about 10 years ago.) These birds' jaws are powerful enough to crush bone and intelligent enough to plan out actions. Like you said, a reptile might strike you but you'd see it coming. My in-laws' cockatoo does what that macaw you mentioned did. She will act all sweet and want you to pet her... until she decides to bite your finger off. She hasn't succeeded yet, but that's because we're extra cautious about body parts in cockatoo range. They've also broken small metal locks with their beaks and escaped their cages.

      My wife was once on jury duty on a rape case. The defense attorney made a point of how the woman, after the perpetrator fled, took her cockatoo out of its cage. My wife knew just why she did this. The bird had witnessed the crime and the rapist was someone who lived in her building. If he decided to come back before the police arrived, having the bird free would mean the rapist might just lose some precious body parts. (The defendant was convicted. The evidence against him was overwhelming.)

      I'd rather face and angry dog than an angry cockatoo or macaw. The idea of a 15 foot tall cockatoo with huge teeth and a taste for meat? That would be frightening beyond comprehension!

      --
      My sci-fi novel, Ghost Thief, is now available from Amazon.com.
    30. Re:Whelp. by Jason+Levine · · Score: 1

      They have intelligence and nasty beaks/claws. If their wings aren't clipped, they can also fly and attack from all angles. That's a very bad combination for anyone an African Grey (or Macaw, Cockatoo, etc) decides to attack.

      --
      My sci-fi novel, Ghost Thief, is now available from Amazon.com.
    31. Re:Whelp. by Nethead · · Score: 3, Funny

      Kind of. He went up to the dog and recited a perfect cat meow. That confused the hell out of the dog. Then, while the dog was befuddled, he let out his patented SCRECH and the pit bull ran under the bed.

      --
      -- I have a private email server in my basement.
    32. Re:Whelp. by Danieljury3 · · Score: 2

      What about the Haast's eagle that preyed on the moa? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/.... For a more colorful description see http://www.badassoftheweek.com...

    33. Re:Whelp. by rossdee · · Score: 1

      Moas weren't carnivores

      The Maoris ate them, not the other way round.

    34. Re:Whelp. by torsmo · · Score: 2

      Birds evolved from dinos, while reptiles and dinos evolved from a common ancestor.

    35. Re:Whelp. by M1FCJ · · Score: 1

      I knew the bird in Up was real.

    36. Re:Whelp. by Rakarra · · Score: 1

      This sounds familiar. One summer when staying at my grandmother's house, my brother taught her African Grey to meow, solely to annoy her. I'd walk by the room and I'd hear a meeeeeeeeeeeeeoww. It sounded like a doppler effect, like the cat was in a car going by at 50 mph.

    37. Re:Whelp. by oldmac31310 · · Score: 1

      That's cheating. They could fly. Poor defenseless moa...

      --
      http://www.acetonestudio.com
    38. Re:Whelp. by oldmac31310 · · Score: 1

      ? So?

      --
      http://www.acetonestudio.com
    39. Re:Whelp. by cthulhu11 · · Score: 1

      I hatched 6 emus a while back. I used to play chase with them for exercise -- rattites grow quickly and their legs need exercise. When they were running toward me the t-rex factor was a bit unnerving.

  2. Dang... by Savage-Rabbit · · Score: 1

    This means we'll have to redraw 200 years worth of artwork...

    --
    Only to idiots, are orders laws.
    -- Henning von Tresckow
    1. Re:Dang... by JaredOfEuropa · · Score: 5, Funny

      Not to mention the modifications we have to make to the creationist parks.

      --
      If construction was anything like programming, an incorrectly fitted lock would bring down the entire building...
    2. Re:Dang... by fahrbot-bot · · Score: 4, Funny

      This means we'll have to redraw 200 years worth of artwork...

      And redo other things.... The phrase "Kulindadromeus zabaikalicus of a feather flock together." doesn't really roll off the tongue.

      --
      It must have been something you assimilated. . . .
    3. Re:Dang... by Brain-Fu · · Score: 1

      That is interesting. Could you provide more details about this test you performed, and precisely the results?

      If the test can be recreated, and the results demonstrated to logically support the conclusion, then you will have just revolutionized the foundations of the modern scientific world view. You stand to become quite wealthy and famous, and to win a Nobel prize.

    4. Re:Dang... by Dcnjoe60 · · Score: 2

      You evidently don't understand what science is. Science is "right", because the point is that falsehoods are verifiable, and the established truths are verified by the process of peer review. Science is also getting more "right" with each new discovery. This discovery doesn't invalidate previous discoveries: it bolsters them, and adds new information.

      We used to think the Earth was the center of the Universe. New discoveries led to new insights. These changes to the scientific understanding didn't change the model of the motion of planets across the sky. It helped improve them.

      Conversely, I don't see anyone blaming creationist parks.

      There are also museums of natural history dotted around the world, which collectively contain (I would say) tens of thousands of models, which would either have to be replaced or reworked, or reinterpreted as being an artefact of an earlier, less complete understanding.

      Say what? There is very little in science that is right. Take the atom, if we accept what we know today about it, then pretty much everything for the last century or two is wrong. Same with dinosaurs. If they were all covered in feathers, then what we knew about them before is wrong.

      If scientific ideas really were right, then there wouldn't be changes in understanding. Such a concept wouldn't make sense. Math is right or wrong. 2+2 = 4 is either right or it is not. Our understanding of higher mathematics doesn't change our understanding of prior concepts. Science, for the most part is applied mathematics. How we apply math may not be right and therefore the scientific theory is wrong. That is why science uses models, which again, are mathematical. If enough models point to the same conclusion, then the probability of the science being wrong is reduced. If it is reduced enough, then it is no longer theory but fact.

      Creationists have their theory on how the world came about and so do evolutionists. There are more models to support the scientific theory, but even then, there are something like 35 competing theories of evolution. So, until we can refine the models to narrow the results, all we can say is that we know evolution occurs, but we don't really know how. That's not a lot different from what the creationists say.

      For the record, I disagree with the creationists. However, if one wants to be totally objective (or at least minimize biases), one has to admit that science doesn't always have the answers. The idea that science can eventually explain everything is as an untestable hypothesis as a deity creating everything. Neither can be proven.

      BTW, science is not about proving falsehoods wrong. It is about describing the world/universe around us and doing so with greater and greater precision. Quantum theory states that everything is based on probability. The goal of science is, in any field, is to refine the methodology so that the probability increases that what is modeled most likely represents what is actual.

    5. Re:Dang... by bmxeroh · · Score: 2

      That's what we thought. You can go lie back down now.

      --
      Central Ohio Home Theater Installation - The Theater People
    6. Re:Dang... by the+gnat · · Score: 2

      There are more models to support the scientific theory, but even then, there are something like 35 competing theories of evolution.

      Possibly, but the general concept isn't even remotely controversial (at least among actual scientists). Especially the theory that humans and apes have a common ancestor, which is simultaneously the most minimal example of evolution, and the one that seems to upset people the most.

      However, if one wants to be totally objective (or at least minimize biases), one has to admit that science doesn't always have the answers. The idea that science can eventually explain everything is as an untestable hypothesis as a deity creating everything. Neither can be proven.

      The predictive ability of science - and the number of things it explains - does continue to improve over time, however. The same cannot be said of religion. Or, put another way, science is capable of changing as new evidence is obtained, as exemplified by this article. The Bible, however, is immutable, and the literalists have to resort to increasingly contorted explanations for how the Genesis account could be factually correct.

    7. Re:Dang... by the+gnat · · Score: 2

      Science is wrong

      That's a bit of an exaggeration. Science was incomplete, in the sense that our assumptions about the appearance of dinosaurs were based on limited fossil evidence (and analogies to modern lizards rather than birds). And the raw evidence wasn't even "wrong", it was totally valid - only our interpretations were incorrect. Now we have new evidence, which is being incorporated into how we think about dinosaurs. When was the last time that anything was added to the Bible?

    8. Re:Dang... by narcc · · Score: 1

      For the TL;DR crowd - Go read some Paul Tillich

    9. Re:Dang... by jc42 · · Score: 3, Informative

      Interesting. Science is wrong, and "creationist parks" get the blame.

      Hmmm ... This isn't really a case of scientists being wrong. The old images of dinosaurs have generally been "artists' interpretations" of the evidence, and scientists generally agreed that they had little evidence of the outer appearance of dinosaurs. Skin and other soft tissues don't fossilize too well, and we haven't had many samples until recently.

      And the idea that birds are close relatives of or descended from dinosaurs isn't new. It was suggested by none other than Charles Darwin himself, based on similarities in the skeletons. Many of his colleagues agreed, but they even more agreed with the reply "Yeah, that's certainly interesting; can you find us some better evidence?" The situation stayed that way until the 1970s or so, because birds don't fossilize well. New fossil discoveries finally supplied enough evidence so that in the 1980s, the birds got officially reclassified as a branch of the dinosaurs.

      But it was still well understood that there were a lot of loose ends, and Further Research Is Needed. Were feathers a development of the birds, for flight? Or had their non-flying ancestors had feathers, perhaps for insulation? The evidence wasn't nearly good enough, and it was left as an open question. Over the past decade or so, the evidence has trickled in, and this report seems to be filling in the gap. People who've followed the story aren't surprised; they're just happy to read about the evidence.

      In any case, it never was a case of "Scientists thought that dinosaurs didn't have any sort of fur or feathers, but they've been proven wrong". It was more like "We didn't have the evidence, since feathers don't fossilize well, and now we've collected enough evidence that we can be pretty sure that those old artistic interpretations reptilian dinosaurs with bare skin were inaccurate; most of them (except the largest) probably did have feathers." This isn't considered a criticism of the artists, of course, since they didn't have evidence either, and many of them stated repeatedly that most of their drawings included a large shovel-full of conjecture. It was expected that, as evidence trickled in, they'd have to revise their drawings a lot.

      But it likely is a good example of non-scientists saying "Scientists proved wrong" when the scientific data goes from "we don't really know ..." to "we've found the evidence ...". This is sorta the flip side of the constant "Those scientists just wasted time and money doing research to prove something that we knew all along" comments from people who have little understanding of what science is all about (and have always "known" things based on no evidence at all).

      (Actually, since I first read about this topic back in the 1970s, I've been rooting for the tyrannosaurs having big, colorful cockatoo-like crowns of feathers. But that's just me, and I'm still waiting. But I won't be surprised either way. ;-)

      --
      Those who do study history are doomed to stand helplessly by while everyone else repeats it.
    10. Re:Dang... by the+gnat · · Score: 2

      Good parroting of the popular Dawkins-driven line, but simply vastly historically incorrect as the sequence of events. Origen of Alexandria (one of the "Fathers of the Church", that is, one shaping core positions at the very earliest foundation of Christianity) was arguing for allegorical interpretation of Genesis in the second century A.D.

      I'm aware that many Christians throughout history have argued for an allegorical interpretation of Genesis, which is why I specifically said "literalists" (i.e. creationists and associated nuts). Whatever other problems I may have with the Catholic Church (for example), I do not consider them anti-science. I had in mind the people who try to prove that the speed of light must have changed drastically in order to make the observed size of the universe compatible with their reading of Genesis (e.g. the Ussher chronology). I'll grant that I was a little unfair in blaming "the Bible" for this, but you can't really escape the fact that Christianity is dependent on an essentially immutable set of scriptures*, and there is also a large contingent that views allegorical interpretations as heresy.

      The notion that science comes along and "shows religion incorrect" is fanciful nonsense.

      Which is why I never said that. But it is certainly not nonsense to point out that the available scientific evidence supports a much different origin theory than the literal reading of Genesis. You can view the hand of God in there if you want; I don't really concern myself with such things. However there is still that very large subset of Christians (and Muslims, and Jews) for whom this compromise is intolerable, because for them, whatever the Bible says must be true.

      (* At least within the last millennium or so. Of course in the longer time frame the contents of the Bible - especially the Old Testament - were subject to a great deal of revision and selective editing, which is why the literal interpretation really seems nonsensical to me..)

    11. Re:Dang... by M1FCJ · · Score: 1

      Science is not wrong. We get new knowledge and gain from it, refining our ideas about the past, instead of getting stuck with our heads deep in our asses and insisting the world was created 4004BC, on a particular October day, 23th to be exact.

    12. Re:Dang... by M1FCJ · · Score: 1

      My money is on Zeus. If Zeus and Flying Spagetthi Monster had a fight and I know who would end up being the lunch.

      Never piss off Zeus. He might turn into a bull and shag you to the next Tuesday.

  3. Wish bone by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    I remember hearing once that if the first dinosaurs discovered had wishbones we would have never said they went extinct. We would have said they were a past generation of birds that died off.

  4. Rather broad leap.. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Find some more feathered fossils and conclude that ALL dinosaurs probably had feathers.

    I propose that a heck of a lot more digging and research is necessary before anyone starts putting that in print.

    1. Re:Rather broad leap.. by amicusNYCL · · Score: 1

      Find some more feathered fossils and conclude that ALL dinosaurs probably had feathers.

      It makes a little more sense to conclude something like that when the fossils are very old and of a different lineage than other feathered dinosaurs. The Guardian article does a much better job at explaining the reasoning than the NatGeo article.

      --
      "Our two-party system is like a bowl of shit looking at itself in a mirror." - Lewis Black
    2. Re:Rather broad leap.. by KeithJM · · Score: 4, Insightful

      It's a broad leap, but they didn't just find some random feathered fossils. They found fossils of various species that shared an ancestor very early in the dinosaur line. So it would be like discovering that Humans, Orangutans and Gorillas all had something in common (like a particular lobe of the brain) that we had previously thought only humans had. It would imply the there is a good chance Chimpanzees have it too, because it seems likely to be inherited from that early shared ancestor. They could be wrong, and each of those lines of dinosaurs could have evolved feathers separately. But it's not just a random conclusion.

  5. From the article... by aerivus · · Score: 3, Funny

    What exactly did all these different feathers do? "I don't know; nobody knows for sure," Godefroit says. "These animals couldn't fly, that's all we can tell you."

    Of course these dinosaurs couldn't fly; everyone knows that in the late Triassic, the Pterosaurs received a broad-reaching patent titled "Feathery Apparatus for Flight". Regrettably, the patent term length at the time was over one hundred million years.

  6. Re:Wow, amazing... by Jeremy+Erwin · · Score: 3, Interesting
  7. Re:Wow, amazing... by gstoddart · · Score: 1

    I bet in Australia they wore bathing suits.

    And that multi-color sun screen stuff on their noses.

    --
    Lost at C:>. Found at C.
  8. first thought by roc97007 · · Score: 2

    The next Jurassic Park could be a lot more interesting.

    But probably won't be.

    --
    Oliver's law of assumed responsibility: If you're seen fixing it, you will be blamed for breaking it.
  9. Re:Wow, amazing... by Charliemopps · · Score: 3, Insightful

    You realize Siberia wasn't above the arctic circle 160million years ago right? Also... the whole planet was a lot hotter.

  10. I had a Chuckle by Phics · · Score: 5, Funny

    Sounds like the dinosaurs were humiliated backwards... feathered ...then tarred.

    --
    There are two types of people in the world; those who believe there are two types of people, and those who don't.
    1. Re:I had a Chuckle by istartedi · · Score: 4, Funny

      At least they weren't gzipped.

      --
      For all intensive purposes, "whom" is no longer a word. That begs the question, "who cares"?
    2. Re:I had a Chuckle by NemoinSpace · · Score: 1

      Eric Garner probably would not have survived being tarred and feathered either which is probably why the hole thing was outlawed. Unfortunately, Eric didn't understand simple wisdom. NEVER argue with a cop. That is what lawyers are for. Always strive to survive your trip to see a judge. Never talk to a cop. Cops don't specifically set out to kill you, that i just an added bonus. They simply want to excercise their authority over you, which they have. Usually you can recognize cops by their jackboot uniforms and shiny badges and guns. Unfortunately for Eric he was approached by a "plainclothed" thug. He didn't have a chance to run away. Eric was not given a citation for a court appearance. He was just killed, mostly by accident. I mean, I don't know how 4 guys decide to assault someone by accident, but it's not like they al emptied their revolvers in the hope that one or two bullets ould find their target.

    3. Re:I had a Chuckle by stonedead · · Score: 1

      Or fscked by a unix admin

    4. Re:I had a Chuckle by swillden · · Score: 1

      At least they weren't gzipped.

      Don't be ridiculous. The dinosaurs lived long before the GNU utils were written. They would have been compressed.

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  11. Rather broad leap.. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Informative

    For those of us who have been following the literature on the subject, this doesn't really come as a surprise. Rather than that this fossil shows that all/most dinosaurs had feathers where we previously assumed this to be the case only for some groups, this fossil is a confirmation of the already commonly held view (in the field) that feathers were to all probability basal in dinosaurs.

  12. Re:If it quacks by TheRealMindChild · · Score: 1

    If she weighs the same as a duck.... she's made of wood!

    --

    "When life gives you lemons, don't make lemonade. Make life take the lemons back!" -- Cave Johnson
  13. Something like this? by PortHaven · · Score: 1

    Giant Chickensaurus Rex from Elmo in Grouchland?

    http://img3.wikia.nocookie.net...

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  18. Big Dinos Probably all had Scales by omfglearntoplay · · Score: 1

    What's their definition of "most dinosaurs"? Maybe most as in, there was this one tiny feathered dinosaur that bred like rabbits and was everywhere? And do they mean "had feathers" as in had 3 tiny feathers on the top of a big lizardy dino head? Big dinos almost always had scales from what I've read. And perhaps size is part of is as is seen in recent animals and animals today... larger mammals have far far less fur except during the times of ice ages.

    I found a couple of links that show scales, no feathers, of big dinosaurs. All this feather business is just hype.

    http://blogs.discovermagazine....

    The scale-like structures you see on dinosaur skin are known as called tubercles, and resemble the polygonal desiccation cracks that you might see on a dried up mud flat (because we all investigate sedimentary structures

    http://www.amnh.org/exhibition...

    Very little dinosaur skin fossilized, so what we know about sauropod skin comes from impressions made when it pressed into mud or sand that then hardened and turned to stone. These impressions show that sauropod skin had small bumps and scales that didn't overlap. Some sauropods had bony growths in the skin called osteoderms. But no sauropods had hair or feathers.

  19. Scales to feathers by CODiNE · · Score: 1

    I've never understood this idea. Sure at a macroscopic scale there is some resemblance between scales and feathers, but on looking close you get an entirely different structure.

    Scales being basically flat plates and feathers being long rods with interconnected hooks on them.

    If this story is correct and way more dinosaurs had feathers than previously thought, then why force it?

    --
    Cwm, fjord-bank glyphs vext quiz
  20. Re:all? I don't think that word means what you thi by netsavior · · Score: 2
  21. "Almost all" by Oligonicella · · Score: 1

    Not quite. Sauropods are dinosaurs too and none have been found with feathers that I'm aware of.

  22. Assuming you are Christian by Brain-Fu · · Score: 1

    I timothy 2:3-4: "This is good, and it is pleasing in the sight of God our Savior, who desires all people to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth."

    (see also 2 Peter 3:9)

    So...God wants us to be saved, but you don't? You have in your hands an irrefutable test that will bring us all to knowledge of the truth (and hence salvation) and yet you are refusing to give it to us? Don't you want to please God by furthering his desires (that we all might be saved)? Are you not humble enough to think that God gave you this test to make you an instrument for His purposes (saving us)?

    How about 1 Corinthians 13:2 "If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing."

    You don't love us enough to share your proof of God with us and save us? According to Paul, then, you are nothing, even though you can "fathom all mysteries."

    Methinks your statements betray spite and arrogance. Jesus did not say very nice things about people like you.

    1. Re:Assuming you are Christian by Brain-Fu · · Score: 1

      About me? Matthew 25:34 - 36: "Then the King will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world. 35 For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, 36 I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.’"

      This is what Jesus said about humanitarians and philanthropists (like me, and like many non-Christians). Nothing in this parable is specific to those who follow Jesus or Judiasm or any religion.

    2. Re:Assuming you are Christian by M1FCJ · · Score: 1

      Please, don't confuse him with these... These... Words?

  23. Re:Wow, amazing... by jbmartin6 · · Score: 1

    I think he means plate tectonics, as in the land mass that would be Siberia was a lot further south at that point.

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  24. Swoop will be happy by Hamsterdan · · Score: 1

    But my guess is the other Dinobots won't like it.

    "Me Grimlock no like being bird"

    --
    I've got better things to do tonight than die.
  25. Re:Warm blooded by tomhath · · Score: 1

    Even cold blooded animals do things to retain warmth and protect themselves from overheating. The distinction between warm and cold blooded isn't all or nothing.

  26. Re:T-Rex? by tomhath · · Score: 1

    No, it looked like a big freaking monster with feathers and long teeth.

  27. Those crazy scientists! by Radical+Moderate · · Score: 1

    Next they'll be telling us Pluto isn't a planet. Enough with this revisionism!

    And by god if Brontosaurus was good enough for Fred Flintstone, it's good enough for me!

    --
    Never let a lack of data get in the way of a good rant.
  28. Re:Wow, amazing... by mark-t · · Score: 1

    Its my understandin that Asia has been mostly spinning clockwise as a result of plate tectonics, and the region that is Siberia is actually slightly further south today than it used to be.

  29. Re:Wow, amazing... by jbmartin6 · · Score: 1
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  30. dinosaur history by mcswell · · Score: 1

    "in dinosaur history": really? There are historical documents written while dinosaurs were around? Ok, I admit I'm being a bit pedantic...