Re: birds and dinosaurs

[Mickey Mortimer <Mickey_Mortimer111@msn.com>]

Amtoine Grant wrote-

> > What about differences such as feathers?
>
> Do you have evidence tyrannosaurs didn't have feathers?

Some evidence, yes.  There are three tyrannosaur skin impressions now known
(as far as I can tell), and though none are published, and are varyingly
described as having hadrosaur-like reticulated scales or a scaleless bumpy
surface, they do not preserve feathers.  These don't exclude the possibility
tyrannosaurs had small feathered areas on their body, but such would surely
not confer the same survival advantage as a bird's full covering in any
case.

http://www.cmnh.org/dinoarch/1995Mar/msg00410.html
http://www.cmnh.org/dinoarch/1996Feb/msg00497.html
http://www.cmnh.org/dinoarch/2001May/msg00383.html

Mickey Mortimer
Undergraduate, Earth and Space Sciences
University of Washington
The Theropod Database - http://students.washington.edu/eoraptor/Home.html