At last, a giant feathered tyrannosauroid!

Adam Khor

We all knew this was coming but I personally never thought it would be so soon!

Meet Yutyrannus, a new tyrannosauroid from China measuring up to 9 meters long and the largest feathered dinosaur known to date! Not only is it an incredible creature but also a huge blow to the idea that giant theropods probably lost their feathers due to them not needing insulation. Although that being said, Yutyrannus did live in a rather cold climate. Not necessarily proof of T-Rex being feathered, but it certainly makes it a lot more likely.



http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/notrocketscience/2012/04/04/yutyrannus-a-giant-tyrannosaur-with-feathers/#more-6682

Adam Khor

No comments on this yet, and I thought it was the finding of the month! XD

slade_x

Just saw this on google news

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-17612354

The dinosaur, whose name translates as "beautiful feathered tyrant", shares some features with later tyrannosaurs like T.rex, but has three functional fingers (where T. rex had two) and a foot typical of other early tyrannosaur relatives.

The discovermagazine link didnt mention anything about finger count though. still more info than the first article i read on the subject. But yes big news

T.Rex has been on a bit of a rollercoaster ride. hollywood cementing the idea it was the perfect killer, then later assumptions revealing it may have been nothing more than a capable scavenger, then recently revealing ct scans of its skulls brain cavity indicating it was a more capable predator than previously thought (capable of detecting infrasound and better vision etc.). Now theres a chance it may have been feathery :eek: Full of surprises

Kess73

Adam Khor wrote: »

No comments on this yet, and I thought it was the finding of the month! XD

No comments = denial.

Mickeroo

Sorry Adam, you must understand putting feathers on T-Rex is destroying my child hood. As Kess said, I'm very much in denial here. :P

Adam Khor

Haha ok ok I understand...:pac:

Rubecula

I can't think of anything constructive to say really.

Here chicky chicky.

Polly wants his seed (or he'll bite yer head off)

Sorry. I'll go and hide in a darkened corner.

Adam Khor

Ok, seems that Yutyrannus is already controversial. Some dude claims that it looks more like a carcharodontosaur-type animal than a tyrannosauroid- specifically, that it's similar to Concavenator.
Others say that it's like a blend of tyrannosauroid and carcharodontosaur traits (hinting at possible common ancestor, maybe? if so it would re-write theropod classification).

I personally think it looks quite a bit like Guanlong, and it wouldn´t surprise me if it was its direct descendant but, what do I know? Im no expert. I just... look at pics.

Yutyrannus:



Guanlong:

Galvasean

Adam Khor wrote: »

No comments on this yet, and I thought it was the finding of the month! XD

I was internetless for a week, but wow! This is awesome news.
The fossil skull looks very 'tyrannosaury' to me, but the drawings look quite 'carcharodontosauridy'. I'll have to read up on this more.

Allosaur

Don't know about yours. But my T. rex has not got feathers.

Rubecula

Allosaur wrote: »

Don't know about yours. But my T. rex has not got feathers.

:pac:

Mine has coats made from the skins of just about everything else. (Those dainty "little" hands were good at needlework you know.

Well it makes sense to me :pac: