Friday, June 23, 2017

No Feathers On T Rex?

NO FEATHERS ON T. REX, according to reports in Science (AAAS) News and National Geographic 6 June 2017, BBC News 7 June 2017, and Royal Society Biology Letters doi: 10.1098/rsbl.2017.0092, published online 7 June 2017. Over the last two decades there have been many claims of evolved “protofeathers” being found on dinosaur fossils, including a Chinese dinosaur named Yutyrannus huali, which is believed to be an “early cousin” of Tyrannosaurus rex and other large tyrannosaurs. An international team of scientists have now examined fossilised skin impressions from tyrannosaurs including T. Rex, Albertosaurus, Daspletosaurus, Gorgosaurus and Tarbosaurus, and found they had no signs of any feathers or filaments that could be called proto-feathers on their very reptilian scaly skin. The skin impressions discovered were from various parts of the body, including neck, hips, abdomen and tail. Researchers stated their study “provides compelling evidence of an entirely squamous (scaly) covering in Tyrannosaurus”. But since they did not find any skin fossil impressions of the backs of any tyrannosaurs they studied, they could not dismiss claims that these large dinosaurs may have had feathery filaments on their backs. Therefore they concluded: “These new findings demonstrate that extensive feather coverings observed in some early tyrannosauroids were lost” by the time T. rex and other large tyrannosaurs evolved, possibly because they grew very large and did not need any surface insulation provided by feathers. Not all dinosaur experts are convinced tyrannosaurs were featherless. Stephen Brusatte, a tyrannosaur expert at University of Edinburgh, commented to National Geographic: “I don’t think we need to throw out the image of big fluffy tyrannosaurs quite yet. It's still very possible, even likely in my mind, that some big tyrannosaurs were fluffy Big Birds from hell”.
Links:
BBC, National Geographic, Science
 
ED. COM. We hope you noticed the technique. When you don’t find any evidence you claim it as evidence! When the actual evidence shows that real skin impressions showed scales, and no feathers nor “proto-feathers”, we suggest you run with the actual evidence that is there, and not the ‘fluffy’ belief of Stephen Brusatte or other anti-creation researchers that his imaginary “fluffy Big Birds from hell” may have had filaments on their back based on evidence that does not exist. The claim that Yutyrannus huali turned into T. rex or Albertosaurus, etc. and thus lost their feathers is also based on wishful thinking. Yutyrannus huali is known from three specimens found in one bed in Yixian Formation in Liaoning in China. Yes, there are filamentous streaks associated with the fossil, but nothing that could be called an “extensive feather covering”. The best comment on claimed “proto-feathers” on dinosaurs was made by fossil bird expert Alan Feduccia who described them as “simply frayed out fibres of broken down skin collagen”. See our report “Dinosaur Feather or Fibres?” here
. Creation Research.

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