RE: Feathered Tyrannosaur?????

["Thomas R. Holtz, Jr." <tholtz@geol.umd.edu>]

> From: dbensen [mailto:dbensen@gotnet.net]
> Subject: Re: Feathered Tyrannosaur?????
>
>
> I've never heard of feather impressions from anything in Montana,
> as far as I know the sediment just didn't preserve that sort of
> thing (please correct me if I'm wrong).  Also, the tone of the
> article (being extremely
> dumbed-down) along with the complete unexpectedness of such a
> find and the way they keep calling tyrannosaurus a "raptor" all
> combine to make me think that this article was a joke played on
> Steve. . . except for the
> mention of Bakker.  Would the author of such a hoax have the gall
> to name Bakker in it?  Maybe the much-sought-after
> "tyrannosaur/raptor/cheetah" isn't a myth after all.

Despite mentioning that it was a "feathered raptor", the article never
states that feather impressions were found on the specimen.

I suspect that the news item is conflating a couple of discoveries: a
gracile tyrannosaurid and the "Bambiraptor" dromaeosaurid.

                Thomas R. Holtz, Jr.
                Vertebrate Paleontologist
Department of Geology           Director, Earth, Life & Time Program
University of Maryland          College Park Scholars
                College Park, MD  20742
http://www.geol.umd.edu/~tholtz/tholtz.htm
http://www.geol.umd.edu/~jmerck/eltsite
Phone:  301-405-4084    Email:  tholtz@geol.umd.edu
Fax (Geol):  301-314-9661       Fax (CPS-ELT): 301-314-7843