Dinosaur tail found in Amber

[Sea Skimmer]

Jurassic Park points increase 10,000%!

See mor images at link
http://arstechnica.com/science/2016/12/ ... -feathers/
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[Napoleon the Clown]

My dad was texting me last night about this, joking that millenials had made dinosaurs sissies. My response was that we had made birds more badass.


It's pretty neat to have another example of a feathered dinosaur. I'm curious as to just what portion of them had feathers vs not.

[Guardsman Bass]

My dad was texting me last night about this, joking that millenials had made dinosaurs sissies. My response was that we had made birds more badass.


It's pretty neat to have another example of a feathered dinosaur. I'm curious as to just what portion of them had feathers vs not.

Most of the Therapod dinosaurs would have been feathered as juveniles, with some keeping their feathers into adulthood. Those were nearly all of the bipedal predator dinosaurs, from Tyrannosaurs to Allosaurs to Velociraptors.

It's not so certain with the rest of them (including the majority of herbivores). I think they've found a few quadruped herbivore dinosaurs with evidence for feathers (or something like feathers), but overall the evidence isn't strong.

[LadyTevar]

My Google-Fu is failing me, but wasn't there a similar article a few months back where they found the preserved skeleton of a baby therapod in amber?
IIRC, it was also found in a market that sold amber jewelry. Could this be a missing portion of that same baby?

[Solauren]

My dad was texting me last night about this, joking that millenials had made dinosaurs sissies. My response was that we had made birds more badass.


It's pretty neat to have another example of a feathered dinosaur. I'm curious as to just what portion of them had feathers vs not.

Most of the Therapod dinosaurs would have been feathered as juveniles, with some keeping their feathers into adulthood. Those were nearly all of the bipedal predator dinosaurs, from Tyrannosaurs to Allosaurs to Velociraptors.

It's not so certain with the rest of them (including the majority of herbivores). I think they've found a few quadruped herbivore dinosaurs with evidence for feathers (or something like feathers), but overall the evidence isn't strong.

I hadn't heard that. It makes some sense for the hatchlings to have down, maybe even even thin 'proto-feathers' for a while, but after that, I have trouble visualizing WHY a Stegosaurus, Triceratops, or Ankylosaurus would need feathers.

Mind you, the mental image of something the size of a large Sauropod (i.e Titanosaurus) having a full coat of feathers is just to damn funny...

[Sea Skimmer]

Why? Insulation probably. If they really were both hot and cold blooded they may well have needed feathers to protect exposed areas like tails necks and and ankles from variations in exterior temperature beyond the ability of their partial warm blooded heat production to match. The world was a fair bit warmer then sure, but that doesn't mean dinos wouldn't need this, walking over a high hill in bad weather for example a human can freeze to death with 50F ambient temperature. Obviously the bigger they'd get the less it would matter, which is why it's doubtful a sauropod would be feathered extensively.

Some people think the feathers were some sexual selection thing, but I don't buy that because the feathers would have had to start very very small in evolutionary terms. So small other animals would literally have trouble seeing them, while the metabolic cost of growing them is high. Any selection role would surely come later as the plumage became more significant.

[jwl]

No-one has mentioned Jurassic Park yet?

[Shroom Man 777]

Even larger mammalianoids like buffalo and giraffes have fur so equivalently-sized dinosaurians might have fur-like feathers? Of course when they reach elephant-like mass, or rhino-like mass, such things might not be as much of a concern? Depending on where... furry elephants did exist...

[Thanas]

No-one has mentioned Jurassic Park yet?

Nobody except the OP in his first line lol.

[Flagg]

No-one has mentioned Jurassic Park yet?

Nobody except the OP in his first line lol.

QUICK! TO THE CRICHTON-MOBILE!

...It's... It's a hearse...

[The Romulan Republic]

Even larger mammalianoids like buffalo and giraffes have fur so equivalently-sized dinosaurians might have fur-like feathers? Of course when they reach elephant-like mass, or rhino-like mass, such things might not be as much of a concern? Depending on where... furry elephants did exist...

So if I'm understanding this all correctly, its theorized that the progression in how feathers were used was first as insulation, then for display, and only later for flight?

[Shroom Man 777]

I'm no biomagus but sure? I mean those initial mutations or adaptations could not have been automatically be so developed as to be... formed in a way that would help for flight. The initial manifestations of feathery crap would have to be pretty half-assed... something just useful for things like insulation. Like how the first legs were probably just to help sea creatures undulate better... it's not like they automatically grew cheetah legs. Gliding-flight would require more developed sorts of feathers and is a complex activity. Whereas some stubble to help El Reptilio keep warm seems simpler.

[SpottedKitty]

So if I'm understanding this all correctly, its theorized that the progression in how feathers were used was first as insulation, then for display, and only later for flight?

That's pretty much how evolution works; existing bits of anatomy are repurposed again and again and again. If this goes on long enough, it might not be easy to recognise what the original anatomy did, or even what it looked like.

[Alyrium Denryle]

Some people think the feathers were some sexual selection thing, but I don't buy that because the feathers would have had to start very very small in evolutionary terms. So small other animals would literally have trouble seeing them, while the metabolic cost of growing them is high. Any selection role would surely come later as the plumage became more significant.

Feathers are basically modified scales on their own they are not that expensive to produce, particularly if they are small, and the whole point of a structure under sexual selection is that it is costly to produce. "Gaze upon my feathers, I managed to grow these despite horrible living conditions which means I am a genetic badass. Fuck me!" is basically what they are saying.

For most birds, the pigments (or reflective surfaces for the irridecent colors) are actually the part that is costly to produce. Once the feather evolves initially (for insulation), well... now there is a structure upon which sexual selection can act. Start off with down infused with red and black pigments (or something like that), then in some lineages (therapods) you start getting display structures on the forearms and tail made of symmetrical feathers with gaudy pigments or iridescent physical structures. At which point, some arboreal lineages might be using them for stabilization on branches or for parachuting and asymmetrical flight feathers evolve. At which point you get gliders. When they end up on the ground, the same motion used for flight can also be used to assist in climbing (wing assisted incline running).

But that never would have been possible without sexual selection for larger display structures.