Siberian Discovery Suggests Almost All Dinosaurs Were Feathered 139
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."
Whelp. (Score:5, Funny)
Time to remake Jurassic Park. And while he's at it, Speilberg can change all the guns to flashlights!
Re:Dang... (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Whelp. (Score:4, 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).
From the article... (Score:3, Funny)
Of course these dinosaurs couldn't fly; everyone knows that in the late Triassic, the Pterosaurs [wikipedia.org] received a broad-reaching patent titled "Feathery Apparatus for Flight". Regrettably, the patent term length at the time was over one hundred million years.
Re:Dang... (Score:5, 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.
I had a Chuckle (Score:5, Funny)
Sounds like the dinosaurs were humiliated backwards... feathered ...then tarred.
Re:Whelp. (Score:4, Funny)
Nope.
Re:I had a Chuckle (Score:5, Funny)
At least they weren't gzipped.
Comment removed (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Whelp. (Score:4, 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.