7 ms·

Where are the feathers?!? Looks just like a dragon.

by algem 4y ago

h2odragon 4y ago
Dragons usually wore more jewelry
blendergeek 4y ago
From what I understand, it was more the Therapods that are thought to have had feathers. This is an ankylosaur which was a heavily armored dinosaur.
- anyfoo 4y ago
  Regardless of whether this specific dinosaur is thought to have feathers or not, I was wondering if feathers would survive the fossilization in the first place? Is there anything intrinsic to feathers that would make them different in that regard, then, say, the skin (which apparently is relatively well preserved)?
  - dTal 4y ago
    Feathers have in fact "survived" fossilization, notably those attached to several whole-body archaeopteryx fossils (scare quotes around "survive" because the original material is gone, it is only the shape which survives)
  - Tagbert 4y ago
    Under very special preservation circumstances, feathers to fossilize. You can see some examples of dinosaur fossils in this Wikipedia article. If you search you can also find lots of bird feature fossils (avian dinosaurs). https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Feathered_dinosaur https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Feathered_dinosaur this article is from The NY Times and I am only linking to it because the first photo in that article is an amazing fossil of a feather. https://www.nytimes.com/2020/09/30/science/dinosaur-feather-fossil-archaeopteryx.html https://www.nytimes.com/2020/09/30/science/dinosaur-feather-...
- Groxx 4y ago
  For further context: "dinosaurs" covers a time range MUCH longer than the time since they went extinct, i.e. enough time for almost all mammals and modern birds and darn near everything you can see today except crocodiles and horseshoe crabs to evolve. There was a large variety. An extremely large variety. As much as we are understandably excited about feathers being a thing that we didn't realize earlier, in 100+ million years a lot of things evolve. They didn't all have feathers.
  - fsckboy 4y ago
    > enough time for almost all mammals and modern birds and darn near everything you can see today except crocodiles and horseshoe crabs to evolve. I know what you're trying to say, but every living thing today, from the mammals to the fungus among us, have spent the same amount of time evolving, dating back to the first life, or at least the first life encoded for reproduction. Except for the birds, the dinosaurs quit early.
    - Groxx 4y ago
      Whales evolved from small land mammals since about 50 million years (half the time since dinosaurs) (it took them more like 20 million, but I'm being generous because whales still exist). 100 million years is an extremely long time. A lot happens in that amount of time.
      - fsckboy 4y ago
        > 100 million years is an extremely long time. A lot happens in that amount of time. during that period of time, the ancestors of every living thing on earth was also mutating and naturally selecting. during the entire time the dinosaurs roamed the earth, the mammals and/or their ancestors were also evolving and saving up genetic endowment for being the fittest in every eventuality; sadly, the dinosaurs bet on the wrong ... horses.
        gus_massa 4y ago
        The big famous ones got toasted, but one[1] of the small specie survived. A few decades ago, we realized that birds are the descendant of dinosaurs. (Or "birds are dinosaurs" if you prefer that classification.) [1] One specie or a few species? I'm really curious about the current most popular hypothesis.
- cvccvroomvroom 4y ago
  Considering natural selection is rarely wasteful at the species level, must've been some nasty predators to evolve that much armor.
hcrisp 4y ago
I feel that award goes to the dracorex "dragon king" skull: https://dino.fandom.com/wiki/Dracorex/Gallery?file=National-geographic-dinosaurs011.jpg https://dino.fandom.com/wiki/Dracorex/Gallery?file=National-...

Where are the feathers?!? Looks just like a dragon.

by algem 4y ago

Where are the feathers?!? Looks just like a dragon.

h2odragon 4y ago

Dragons usually wore more jewelry

blendergeek 4y ago

From what I understand, it was more the Therapods that are thought to have had feathers. This is an ankylosaur which was a heavily armored dinosaur.

anyfoo 4y ago
Regardless of whether this specific dinosaur is thought to have feathers or not, I was wondering if feathers would survive the fossilization in the first place? Is there anything intrinsic to feathers that would make them different in that regard, then, say, the skin (which apparently is relatively well preserved)?
- dTal 4y ago
  Feathers have in fact "survived" fossilization, notably those attached to several whole-body archaeopteryx fossils (scare quotes around "survive" because the original material is gone, it is only the shape which survives)
- Tagbert 4y ago
  Under very special preservation circumstances, feathers to fossilize. You can see some examples of dinosaur fossils in this Wikipedia article. If you search you can also find lots of bird feature fossils (avian dinosaurs). https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Feathered_dinosaur https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Feathered_dinosaur this article is from The NY Times and I am only linking to it because the first photo in that article is an amazing fossil of a feather. https://www.nytimes.com/2020/09/30/science/dinosaur-feather-fossil-archaeopteryx.html https://www.nytimes.com/2020/09/30/science/dinosaur-feather-...
Groxx 4y ago
For further context: "dinosaurs" covers a time range MUCH longer than the time since they went extinct, i.e. enough time for almost all mammals and modern birds and darn near everything you can see today except crocodiles and horseshoe crabs to evolve. There was a large variety. An extremely large variety. As much as we are understandably excited about feathers being a thing that we didn't realize earlier, in 100+ million years a lot of things evolve. They didn't all have feathers.
- fsckboy 4y ago
  > enough time for almost all mammals and modern birds and darn near everything you can see today except crocodiles and horseshoe crabs to evolve. I know what you're trying to say, but every living thing today, from the mammals to the fungus among us, have spent the same amount of time evolving, dating back to the first life, or at least the first life encoded for reproduction. Except for the birds, the dinosaurs quit early.
  - Groxx 4y ago
    Whales evolved from small land mammals since about 50 million years (half the time since dinosaurs) (it took them more like 20 million, but I'm being generous because whales still exist). 100 million years is an extremely long time. A lot happens in that amount of time.
    - fsckboy 4y ago
      > 100 million years is an extremely long time. A lot happens in that amount of time. during that period of time, the ancestors of every living thing on earth was also mutating and naturally selecting. during the entire time the dinosaurs roamed the earth, the mammals and/or their ancestors were also evolving and saving up genetic endowment for being the fittest in every eventuality; sadly, the dinosaurs bet on the wrong ... horses.
      - gus_massa 4y ago
        The big famous ones got toasted, but one[1] of the small specie survived. A few decades ago, we realized that birds are the descendant of dinosaurs. (Or "birds are dinosaurs" if you prefer that classification.) [1] One specie or a few species? I'm really curious about the current most popular hypothesis.
cvccvroomvroom 4y ago
Considering natural selection is rarely wasteful at the species level, must've been some nasty predators to evolve that much armor.

hcrisp 4y ago

I feel that award goes to the dracorex "dragon king" skull: https://dino.fandom.com/wiki/Dracorex/Gallery?file=National-geographic-dinosaurs011.jpg https://dino.fandom.com/wiki/Dracorex/Gallery?file=National-...