Did All Dinosaurs Have Feathers?

[DDutton]

The feathered dinosaur shown in this artist's conception, is thought to have weighed more than 3,000 pounds.

LOS ANGELES — The discovery of a giant meat-eating dinosaur sporting a downy coat has some scientists reimagining the look of Tyrannosaurus rex.
With a killer jaw and sharp claws, T. rex has long been depicted in movies and popular culture as having scaly skin. But the discovery of an earlier relative suggests the king of dinosaurs may have had a softer side.


The evidence comes from the unearthing of a new tyrannosaur species in northeastern China that lived 60 million years before T. rex. The fossil record preserved remains of fluffy down, making it the largest feathered dinosaur ever found.


If a T. rex relative had feathers, why not T. rex? Scientists said the evidence is trending in that direction.


"People need to start changing their image of T. rex," said Luis Chiappe, director of the Dinosaur Institute at the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County, who was not part of the discovery team.

MORE- http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/46954385...e#.T6yz-etYtGI

[shred]

Another pseudo-science theory disproved. Let us see how long it takes to teach this in school and how long newer ideas take. The cycles of science goes on.

To me this always seemed likely. Feathers are rarely preserved as a fossil. Flight feathers just appearing on their own was pretty weak. The feathers needed to exist in another form first. What useful purpose are they attributing to the downy feathers? Looks like the old standbys. Nothing new that may have been the original function of feathers before they evolved into other uses.

[aslan]

Another pseudo-science theory disproved. Let us see how long it takes to teach this in school and how long newer ideas take. The cycles of science goes on.

To me this always seemed likely. Feathers are rarely preserved as a fossil. Flight feathers just appearing on their own was pretty weak. The feathers needed to exist in another form first. What useful purpose are they attributing to the downy feathers? Looks like the old standbys. Nothing new that may have been the original function of feathers before they evolved into other uses.

Pseudo-science, or best guess disproven? Hypothesis is a valid part of science.

[shred]

The sciences based on extrapolation way beyond what is statistically valid to come up with unprovable hypothesis I like to call pseudo-sciences. They make guesses with the highest degree of certainty they can. That degree of certainty is very low however.

[DDutton]

Dinosaurs are now believed by some scientists to have had feathers, been
closer to today's birds than to today's lizards, and they were WARM-blooded.