Well, as is often the case, this post is a bit late to the party, despite starting early. Unless you have been living under a rock (or don’t care that much about dinosaurs), you have probably heard about the discovery of a small ornithischian from Siberia, Russia that apparently sports feathers as well as scales on its body. It’s a crazy half-and-half animal that has given many the green light for making all dinosaurs feathery.
As is often the case with these studies I am writing to urge caution against taking things too far, if just so there is some voice of dissent out there in an internet fully of trigger-happy feather reconstructions.
Let’s start from the beginning.