Tom Holtz writes: "bears from paleotropical
and neotropical
rainforests can be quite hairy.
Please note, though: that was just a
reminder, and not an excuse to start
drawing shaggy rexes!
"
> Why not?
>
> Assuming tyrannosaurs were
phylogenetically likely to be feathered, why would they lose
them?
>
Actually, I didn't
mean "don't put feathers on them"; I meant "it might look silly to make the
feathers as shaggy as in a ground sloth or a sloth bear".
> Why can't big ceolurosaurs have
feathers? Ostriches, at 150kg are already too big to need feathers for
insulation,
> especially given the climate they live
in. (mass homeothermy starts around 100kg, Colbert 1946.)
> Many other birds weighed
much more, up to 500kg! So why can't T-rex be feathered?
No reason why they
couldn't, although the few patches of tyrant skin I've seen (one from the tail
region, one uncertain where it was from) has very tiny pebbled
scales.
Also, size
matters, and there is a (biophysiological) world of difference between 500 kg
and 5000 kg, as we will all be shortly reminded later today (he said once
again, cryptically, although this being Wednesday I think people might be
suspicious... :-).
> (Once again, thanks everyone
for your replies. Got one from Tom Holtz! How much better can life
get?)