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A new fossil suggests 'all dinosaurs' may have had feathers

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G

GK86

Homeland Security Fail
Link. Fossilize me if old.

You've never seen a dinosaur, naturally, but you probably have a pretty good idea of what they look like. We've seen the same look over and over, across dozens of movies, books and museums: there's the balanced tail, the lizard-shaped head and, most of all, dark and tough scales.

But a new find in Siberia has paleontologists suspecting that look may be flat wrong. A team of researchers led by Pascal Godefroit has found a new dinosaur with ultra-thin feathers, joining other feathered species found in China and North America. More importantly, the new find is the first non-carnivorous dinosaur with feathers, which many in the field have taken as evidence that feathers were far more widespread than previously thought. If they're right, a big part of the way we think of dinosaurs may have to change.

Godefriot's new creature is called the Kulindadromeus zabaikalicus — a Jurassic creature about a meter and a half long, with large legs, short arms, and a very long tail. Because of the unusually well-preserved fossil, Godefroit could tell the Kulindadromeus had feathering on its torso and neck, but not its face, legs, or tail.

Though feathered dinosaurs have been found before — Chinese groups found feathers on dinosaurs back in the 1990s — they have all been theropods, a class of upright dinosaurs like the Tyrannosaurus rex, which let researchers explain the feathers as part of the creatures’ eventual evolution into birds. But the plant-eating Kulindadromeus doesn't fit into that story. All the proto-bird species have been carnivores, so these feathers must have grown up independently of that evolutionary branch. That suggests that some dinosaurs, including many of the better-known species, may have developed feathers independently. "Probably more of them had feathers but those feathers were not fossilized," Godefriot told The Verge. "Potentially, all dinosaurs could be covered with feathers."

The theory has already found support among others in the community. Darla Zelenitsky, who unearthed the first feathered dinosaur in North America in 2012, says the growing number of finds are pushing the paleontology community towards a tipping point. "The popular scaly model of plant-eating dinosaurs may, in years to come, be completely replaced by a feathered-scaly model," Zelenitsky says. Since the Kulindadromeus is flightless, some have speculated that the creature evolved feathers for warmth, which would bring in a lot of other dinosaurs potential candidates.

The big issue is the absence of evidence. Feathers aren't in our fossil record for most dinosaur species, but it's hard to say if that's because the feathers were never there or because they decomposed along the way. Paleontologists had been assuming the creatures were featherless for evolutionary reasons — but theropods and the new Kulindadromeus developed feathers independently, hundreds of other species could potentially have taken the same route. "It's really just the starting point," Godefriot says, "there are many many questions left."
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pants

pants

Member
The one time topic I dont want to believe in science. give me my terrible lizards, fuck the chicken movement!
 
A

Acorn

Member
I hope the movie industry continues to ignore this feather crap.

Make dinosaurs look hilarious instead of badass.
 
D

Data West

coaches in the WNBA
I feel like this is the biggest shit throwing party in the archaeology field. Wasn't there a report this year completely debunking the feathered dinosaur 'discovery'?
 
T

TheRealTalker

Banned
Awwww
godefriot.jpg

OKQV6J7.jpg
 
K

Kinitari

Black Canada Mafia
Team No Man's Sky feathers checking in. I just think a Brontosaurus with feathers would look baller.

GURJdK5.jpg
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Regardless, the relationship between scales and feathers is pretty well founded, I wouldn't really be surprised if this was accurate.
 
V

Valhelm

contribute something
This doesn't suggest all dinosaurs had feathers. This suggests that some herbivores may have had feathers, in addition to many carnivores.
 
O

Orbis Tabula

Member
Valhelm said:
This doesn't suggest all dinosaurs had feathers. This suggests that some herbivores may have had feathers, in addition to many carnivores.
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Written on the bone of this dinosaur was the message, in English, "All us Dinosaurs have feathers. Fuck you Jurassic Park."
 
V

Valhelm

contribute something
TheRealTalker said:
All Dinos are just BIG birds


just lots and lots of flightless birds
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Nah, that's a bad way to think of it.

Birds are dinosaurs specialized for flight. Unfortunately, flying is really heavy, so evolution made some sacrifices.

Cool dinosaur skulls and big teeth were foregone for light beaks. Thick bones become hollow. Tails had to go, too.

Birds are really just super light dinosaurs.
 
A

adj_noun

Member
Fancy Clown said:
Your move Jurassic World
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I'd say INGEN engineers the dinosaurs to fit popular customer perceptions of dinosaurs., regardless of their natural traits. I honestly wouldn't be surprised if they hand wave it away with a sentence or two.

The much maligned Telltale Jurassic Park game did something similar, IIRC.
 
S

Septimus Prime

Member
Could these be proto-feathers that look more like hair than what we'd consider feathers? It's also kind of crazy how, since we have almost no soft tissue, it's hard to tell what dinosaurs actually look like, as opposed to their "deflated" skeletal forms.

Kinitari said:
Team No Man's Sky feathers checking in. I just think a Brontosaurus with feathers would look baller.
Click to expand...
No such thing.

Despite the much-publicized debut of the mounted skeleton, which cemented the name Brontosaurus in the public consciousness, Elmer Riggs had published a paper in the 1903 edition of Geological Series of the Field Columbian Museum that argued that Brontosaurus was not different enough from Apatosaurus to warrant its own genus, and created the combination Apatosaurus excelsus: "In view of these facts the two genera may be regarded as synonymous. As the term 'Apatosaurus' has priority, 'Brontosaurus' will be regarded as a synonym."
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I'm sorry.
 
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