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Paleontologists have long debated this. A string of studies in the past decade have pointed to the potential widespread presence of either feathers or fuzz-like proto-feathers in dinosaur species. In 2012, paleontologists found that a T. rex relative, Yutyrannus huali, had filamentous feathers. If a relative had feathers, why not the king of reptiles itself? Chance of an answer: “We don’t know the logistics,” says Carrano. “We can theorize; these are pretty big animals—seven-ton animals that stood on two legs.” Scientists might look to giraffes or elephants, but they obviously aren’t perfect models. Video: Meet the Robinsons/Disney
That’s the scientific definition. Let me try to break it down for you (no pun intended) in simple words. Yes, you’ve read that right! Apparently, someone has come up with the hilarious idea of giving these farm fowls a pair of dinosaur arms. Although this might come as a surprise to many, several studies have actually confirmed the kinship between T-Rex and birds. In fact, contrary to popular belief, the mighty predator shared more of its genetic makeup with birds than with reptiles.The 2nd evidence is feathers. Over the years you may have noticed that there have been more and more pictures of dinosaurs with feathers. Our traditional ideas about what Velociraptors, or even the T-Rex, looked like are now shifting from reptile-like to bird-like.
When paleontologists found the Archaeopteryx they finally had a well-preserved fossil that showed only slight differences between Archaeopteryx and theropods. We have discovered that dinosaur DNA, and all DNA, just breaks down too fast. We’re just not going to be able to do what they did in ‘Jurassic Park.’ We’re not going to be able to make a dinosaur based on a dinosaur.” HornerChance of an answer? It’s looking more and more likely that T. rex had feathers, but coloration and skin texture remain unknown, for now. Or, remembering all the warning of Dr. Malcom in the Jurassic Park series, it could just go horribly bad. We can’t extract DNA from collagen, at least not Dino DNA. That’s because DNA breaks down too fast and dinosaurs are too old. This is because paleontologists have determined that dinosaurs are more like birds than any other animal. Once Horner got his T. rex home, Mary H. Schweitzer of the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences found some soft-tissue preserved inside the T. rex bone.
Finally, In 2011, samples of amber from the Cretaceous era were discovered that contained preserved feathers. This led paleontologist to conclude that “some of the feathers were used for insulation, and not flight.” In June of last year, the Smithsonian reached an agreement with the U. S. Army Corps of Engineers, and the skeleton is on loan to the Smithsonian for the next 50 years. At 80 to 85 percent of a full T. rex skeleton, the Wankel T. rex is among the most complete fossils of its kind unearthed, second only to the Chicago Field Museum’s “Sue,” which the Smithsonian tried to acquire in 1997. Beyond these stunning skeletal displays, paleontologists have found some 50 T. rex specimens, since Henry Fairfield Osborn first described the species in 1905. A reconstruction of the two Tyrannosaurus rex caught in the act of mating at the Jurassic Museum of Asturias in Spain. Collagen is the main component of connective tissue and one of the most abundant proteins in living animals. As for T. rex babies: Perhaps the young were born with a fluffy feather coat, a common phenomenon in birds, and then lost the majority of their feathers once they reached adulthood. “The bigger you are the harder it is to lose heat,” says Schweitzer. “So, when you’re little, as most critters are when they hatch out, you need insulation or their metabolism would have to be fast enough to maintain body temperature.”These results match predictions made from skeletal anatomy, providing the first molecular evidence for the evolutionary relationships of a non-avian dinosaur.” Chris Organ
The mysterious function of T. rex’s short arms has provided an endless source of amusement on the internet. But scientists too have been perplexed by the dichotomy of such a large animal with such tiny, seemingly useless forelimbs. Similar to the initial idea that T. rex used its arms to hold its mate, some have suggested that the arms kept prey in place—a study from 1990 hypothesized that the arms could maneuver at least 400 pounds—or provided lift when the animal stood up on two legs, assuming the animals ever sat on the ground. The king of reptiles, though mighty and well documented in the fossil record, remains largely a mystery to paleontologists who have yet to understand the creature’s basic lifestyle and biology. We've culled scientific reports to bring you five questions that have yet to be answered: When he said, “We’re not going to be able to make a dinosaur based on a dinosaur.” he meant we can’t take DNA from a mosquito and even fossils and then ‘make’ a dinosaur.
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Dino bones look like bird bones. Just by simply looking at the bones we have today you can easily see that they look more like birds than any other animal. This, is actually, the first thing that led researchers to come to believe that dinosaurs were closely related to birds. Scientists don’t know if T. rex was totally warm blooded or cold blooded, but they think that the giant’s metabolic rate was probably somewhere in between that of crocodiles and birds. A study published last year in PLOS One suggests that cold blooded energetics could not have fueled dinosaurs’ active lifestyles, and thus they probably didn’t regulate their body temperature exclusively by moving into the sun, as modern lizards and crocodiles are known do. If the PLOS One study is true, it is even more likely that newborns had feathers. Oh, I just thought of something. If that is true, then it also answers a few age-old questions. Like:
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