All dinosaurs may have had feathers

[Viva_La_Revolution]

Early dinosaurs probably looked a lot more like Big Bird than scientists once suspected. A newly discovered, nearly complete fossilized skeleton hints that all dinosaurs may have sported feathers.

“It suggests that the ancestor of all dinosaurs might have been a feathered animal,” says study author Mark Norell, a paleontologist at the American Museum of Natural History in New York.

Researchers have found feathered dinosaurs before, but this one is more distantly related to birds than any previously discovered. Called Sciurumimus albersdoerferi, it belongs to a group of massive dinosaurs called megalosaurs that had sharp teeth, claws and a heavy-duty frame. The specimen — a youngster that lived about 150 million years ago — is only 70 centimeters long, but it could have grown up to 10 meters, about the length of a school bus.

http://www.sciencenews.org/view/generic/id/341948/description/All__dinosaurs_may_have_had_feathers

[Ian David]

1. That can't be true. It would have made it impossible for people to ride on them.

[AlecBGreen]

8. false

[Ian David]

9. I want one now! n/t

[AlecBGreen]

10. you want an ostrich?

i can get you one, cheap, low miles. I know some people... just dont ask too may questions. Oh btw, its sold "as is." No warranties on this baby.

[dipsydoodle]

2. Well if they'd had my four cats

they'd have had a lot of fluff on them too.

[arcane1]

3. Neat!! :D

[Ezlivin]

4. Going to have to call "BS" on this.

There's no biblical proof of this.

[limpyhobbler]

7. I want to frame this and hang it in my dining room.

But first I have to get a dining room.

[Ezlivin]

11. It's a photo

I just love the kitsch of biblical dinosaur imagery.

[longship]

20. Isn't that the Lennon Sisters?

Nah! Sorry. That's Pat Boone and his two sisters. Horrible toop even in the early 60's.

[Auntie Bush]

21. Unfortunately I know some people who would believe this. Can you say low information voter?

[leftyohiolib]

5. how do you get down off a dragon

you dont you get down off a duck

[LiberalEsto]

6. Even Mitch McConnell?

[Johonny]

12. I'm confused how does a late Jurassic Dinosaur tell you about early dinosaurs?

anyone know?

[muriel_volestrangler]

13. It makes it much more likely the common ancestor of this and coelurosaurs had feathers

of some sort, at some stage of their lives. About a month ago, the clade of all descendants from this common ancestor has been termed 'Orionides'.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orionides
http://theropoddatabase.blogspot.co.uk/2012/05/amazing-new-tetanurine-paper.html

'All dinosaurs' does seem a stretch; but they're saying it's unlikely feathers developed twice, so it pushes it back to the middle Jurassic most likely, anyway, and it might go further; and raises the possibility that allosaurs had some form of feathers too.

[Johonny]

15. cool thanks for the link

[Curmudgeoness]

17. You would expect that it is unlikely that feathers developed twice,

but I just read an article about geckos and their adhesive toepads that may put that in dispute.

Geckos are known for sticky toes that allow them to climb up walls and even hang upside down on ceilings. A new study shows that geckos have gained and lost these unique adhesive structures multiple times over the course of their long evolutionary history in response to habitat changes.

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/06/120628131053.htm

I am not entirely sure how they have determined this, but then again, I am not an evolutionary researcher. What this does mean, if it turns out to be true, is that many adaptations may have developed more than once.

[Neoma]

14. They were yellow?

[Shadowflash]

16. Cool!

[Odin2005]

18. Awesome pic, stealing!

[Odin2005]

19. Pterosaurs had hair-like structures, too.

Dinosaurs and Pterosaurs are sister groups, so their common ancestor probably had those hair-like structures.

[Rabid_Rabbit]

22. If only

we had cameras 4000 years ago we could put and end to all this speculation