Images of dinosaur feathers in amber

[publiusr]

Even the asteroid impact that wiped most of them out wasn't even a theory until 1980, when I was in Kindergarten.

With Shoemaker joining Walter and Luis Alvarez in the grave, the gradualists--uniformitarianists have started to come out of the woodwork again. The Channeled Scablands sounded like something a Young Earther would concoct, so all Catastrophists got painted with the Velikovsky brush--and it took a long time for impact theory to make its mark.

I remember when Meteor Crator was called crypto-volcanic.

Well, now, Discovery Channel had a special that aired not long ago questioning the dino killer impact.

Talk about denialism--something damn near blows a hole through a continent, and that folks question.

This is why I really wish I could believe in creationism.

God:
" Hey, Ray Harryhausen! Have I got a job for you! It will take some time traveling, but I want you to help me shape the laws of physics so we can make the Rhedosaurus real.
Bonestell is in charge of the Moon now by the way. The blind forces of evolution and physics just led to dinos with feathers and humdrum lunar landscapes. It's time to kick things up a notch..now to make anti-gravity real and liquid hydrogen a dense, room temperature liquid."

 

[B.J.]

Good thing that I watched Jurassic Park when it was still cool and not inaccurate. These scientists ruin everything.

At least Jurassic Park was the first dinosaur movie to depict T. rex as a fast, agile predator that carried the weight of its body balanced on its pelvic girdle like a seesaw, unlike previous depictions that showed the creature walking more or less upright and dragging its tail.

The Kangasaurus posture.

HA! Can you imagine a 6 ton theropod rearing back on its tail and kicking like a kangaroo? Ouch!

 

[Alidar Jarok]

The thing is, there are other mass extinctions that involve no cataclysmic events and other meteor impacts with no impact on species survival, so it is a bit odd that this one time, there is a meteor to explain it. However, not only has the impact site been found, but the evidence elsewhere of its effects are pretty strong. I certainly agree its a bit odd to deny that it was at least part of the equation these days.

 

[gturner]

A new theory is that the ground-dwelling dinosaurs went extinct because the mammals hunted them all to extinction to get soft down for stuffing mattresses and pillows. I know this is a new theory because I just proposed it here.

 

[gturner]

Off topic, the Messenger probe orbiting Mercury just made an AMAZING discovery. I never saw that one coming.

 

[B.J.]

Off topic, the Messenger probe orbiting Mercury just made an AMAZING discovery. I never saw that one coming.

Nice! "He will not be permanently damaged."

 

[scotpens]

A new theory is that the ground-dwelling dinosaurs went extinct because the mammals hunted them all to extinction to get soft down for stuffing mattresses and pillows. I know this is a new theory because I just proposed it here.

[yt]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fTOH8QK-6HA[/yt]

 

[Argus Skyhawk]

More knowledge is a good thing, regardless of whether or not it changes someone's childhood perceptions.

I still lament the non-existence of the Brontosaurus.

Don't worry. The fact that he is now called Apatosaurus, and that we now know his head was shaped a little differently, doesn't mean he didn't exist.

 

[Argus Skyhawk]

The title of this thread has evolved!

By the way, the feathers in that article date to the late cretaceous period, when birds already existed. I would be interested in knowing how they determined the feathers were not from birds.

 

[RoJoHen]

More knowledge is a good thing, regardless of whether or not it changes someone's childhood perceptions.

I still lament the non-existence of the Brontosaurus.

Don't worry. The fact that he is now called Apatosaurus, and that we now know his head was shaped a little differently, doesn't mean he didn't exist.

BUT IT'S NOT THE SAME!

 

[Saturn0660]

It often amazes me how much our knowledge of dinosaurs has changed since I was a kid. When I was born, the idea that dinosaurs were warm-blooded, often feathered, and evolved into birds wasn't generally accepted. These days, it's practically a mundane fact.

Yup. With their pea sized brains. Walked all slow could barely hold up there own weight. etc, etc, etc..

 

[Metryq]

Re: The title of this thread has evolved!

I would be interested in knowing how they determined the feathers were not from birds.

Probably from accounts left by people who had dinosaurs as pets. Maybe that museum in Kentucky has something.

 

[Timelord79 (he/him)]

Re: The title of this thread has evolved!

I would be interested in knowing how they determined the feathers were not from birds.

Probably from accounts left by people who had dinosaurs as pets. Maybe that museum in Kentucky has something.

 

[Owain Taggart]

Re: The title of this thread has evolved!

By the way, the feathers in that article date to the late cretaceous period, when birds already existed. I would be interested in knowing how they determined the feathers were not from birds.

That's a good question. There was a temporary exhibit at our science center featuring feathered dinosaurs that I worked at, and it was theorized that the feathers belonging to dinosaurs were more hair-like rather than like the feathers we know of today, and moreso for warmth, that therefore they couldn't belong to birds since they weren't built for flight.

I have an Uncle who's a paleontologist who's actually been to Liaoning in China where it was first discovered, so I'll try to ask him to get more of a definite answer.

 

[Alidar Jarok]

As I understand it, that refers to the earlier feathers as opposed to the feathers that existed by that point (in other words, the early evolution of feathers were more hair-like).

Of course, there's a fine line (if one at all) between Dinosaur and Bird.

How big were the "birds" in that time period? Is it possible it's just the size of the feather that's a clue.

 

[Owain Taggart]

As I understand it, that refers to the earlier feathers as opposed to the feathers that existed by that point (in other words, the early evolution of feathers were more hair-like).

Yeah, that makes sense. I'll still have to ask my Uncle for something more precise as per the actual question. I also think the hair was also more dense, so it protected them too. So, it's not so much that Dinosaurs were like birds, but that dinosaurs did have elements that were bird-like.

There was one dinosaur in that exhibit that looked like a giant ostrich more or less, and rather quite tall.

 

[.:: TSN ::.]

One thing about dinosaurs that I've just recently realized is that not all of them lived at same time. For example stegosaurus and tyrannosaurus had ~100 million years between them!

 

[Robert Maxwell]

Yeah, dinosaurs were not all contemporary to one another. They emerged about 230 million years ago and most were extinct by 66 million years ago. That's over 150 million years in which to see many species rise, fall, diverge, etc.

For comparison, the first homo genus appeared less than 3 million years ago, and we've identified at least 12 species in that genus which predate modern humans. There are likely numerous species of dinosaurs--perhaps many tens of thousands--we'll never even know about because no fossils survived.

 

[Argus Skyhawk]

To think that when Tyrannosaurus was stalking the Earth, Stegosaurus had already been extinct longer than Tyrannosaurus now has!

 

[B.J.]

To think that when Tyrannosaurus was stalking the Earth, Stegosaurus had already been extinct longer than Tyrannosaurus now has!