An apparent T. rex ancestor has been discovered in fossil remains preserved so finely that it’s possible to discern that the 30 foot long creature was feathered:
It’s not your father’s tyrannosaur: Yutyrannus huali, a newly discovered ancestor of Tyrannosaurus rex, was covered from head to tail in downy feathers.
At 30 feet long and weighing 3,000 pounds, Y. huali wasn’t so large as T. rex, which came 60 million years later, but it’s the largest feathered tyrannosaur yet found. That such a big creature was feathered suggests its iconic descendant could have been similarly plumed.
The discovery provides “direct evidence for the presence of extensively feathered gigantic dinosaurs,†wrote paleontologists led by Xing Xu of the Chinese Academy of Sciences in their description of the new dinosaur, published April 5 in Nature.
With a Latin and Mandarin name translating to “beautiful feathered tyrant,†Yutyrannus huali was found in the Yixian Formation, a fossil deposit in northeastern China that over the last two decades has yielded dozens of dinosaur skeletons so finely preserved that it’s possible to discern feather-like structures.
Those discoveries have fundamentally changed how dinosaurs appear in our imagination’s eye. Contrary to traditional artistic interpretation, many — perhaps most — of the great reptiles were not covered in scales, but rather with feathers.
Kind of alters your image of the Age of the Dinosaurs, doesn’t it? Rather than scaly monsters, big bird-like creatures, possibly with brilliant plumage. I wonder if any had imaginary friends.
Speculation of a feathered T-Rex goes back a few years, at least. Imagine T-Rex sitting down, all fluffed up like a new chick. Tyrant lizard king?! Time travellers might die laughing as they got eaten by a giant chick! I wonder what dinosaurs will look like in our mind’s eyes in another 50 years time? That has changed twice now in my lifetime. It’s why I like old science books as much old maps….
I keep two small parrots, about a pound apiece. The idea of a 30 ft., 3000 lb. one scares me to death.
And these can scream loud enough to be heard a block away.
That thought crossed my mind, too, Janis. I thought about Jurassic Park and wondered about the weird combination of croaks, rumbles, and ear-piercing birdsong that might have filled the nights 150 million years ago.
How comfortable would you feel with a 3000 lb. animal looking at you like this?
The macaws, some of which can run around 3 lbs., have beaks strong enough to remove a finger.
Sorry, pic here.
” wondered about the weird combination of croaks, rumbles, and ear-piercing birdsong that might have filled the nights 150 million years ago.”
I’ve wondered what it must have been like to be downwind of a herd of sauropods.
Ohs noes!! Another gap God has been kicked out of. /O\
All sarcasm aside though, awesome find. I was never into dinosaurs as a kid, but my kid got into them in a BIG way and I had to stay at least a step ahead of him and all his questions so I learned quite a bit over the years.
Snuffleupagus phantasticus, I like it.
I think this actually makes them even cooler – and fits with their relation to modern birds. Just imagine a brightly colored T-Rex stomping around.
When they do a 2037 re-make of Jurassic Park, maybe they’ll re-do the dinosaurs to match the new data.
The gorgeous Lucy, a Solomon Island Eclectus, grinds her beak every night to sharpen it before she falls asleep. That would be an interesting noise done large.
Brett, they’re alread doing remakes of late ’80s movie (Total Recall and Robocop, IIRC) so we won’t have to wait that long.
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Janis, I remember Stephen Jay Gould once wrote about parakeets and dinosaurs. Something along of the line of “So when you look at your parakeet, remember that in his breast beats the heart of a T-Rex, waiting for its opportunity.”
Do not piss them off. Repeat, do not piss them off.
Interesting thing about the African Grey, he changed his name from Charlie to Charles when he was 16 months old. He has corrected me.