Skin But No Feathers, Huh?

DINO SKIN FOUND BUT NO FEATHERS, according to University of New England News 10 September 2021, also reported in Science Alert and SciTech Daily 13 September 2021, and Cretaceous Research, published online 13 August 2021 doi:10.1016/j.cretres.2021.104994. Palaeontologists Phil Bell of University of New England (UNE) Australia, and Christophe Hendrickx of Unidad Ejecutora Lillo in San Miguel de Tucumán, Argentina have studied fossilised skin from a large theropod dinosaur named Carnotaurus sastrei, which included six pieces from the shoulder, chest, tail and neck The skin was covered in scales of various sizes and shapes. Christophe Hendrickx described them as “large and randomly distributed conical studs surrounded by a network of small elongated, diamond-shaped or subcircular scales”. The cone shaped scales varied from 2 to 6.5cm in diameter. Researchers suggest the knobbly skin scales would have been useful for thermoregulation, as they gave the skin a large surface area for losing heat and preventing overheating. According to UNE News the skin “was entirely scaly, with no evidence of feathers”. Links: Science Alert, SciTech Daily, UNE ED. COM. These findings fit with all known specimens of actual fossilised dinosaur skin. They are covered in scales which vary in size, shape and thickness, but are typical of scales found in living reptiles. The suggestion that thick raised scales were used for thermoregulation is a good one, as living reptiles use scales this way. Reptiles are “cold blooded”, so thick knobby scales can be used to absorb heat when the animal needs to raise its body temperature and lose heat when they get too hot. Therefore, the scales are an example of good design, well integrated into the whole body function. Once again, evolutionists are disappointed there are no feathers. (See our previous report Featherless Dinosaur Surprise here.) We predict that no dino feathers will be found, since all feathers are found in the fossil record, are either isolated specimens, unattached to anything, or they are attached to a fossil bird. There are some feathered creaturesin the fossil record (e.g. Archaeopteryx, Microraptor) that are different to living birds, but these were not dinosaurs. They are nowextinct and a reminder there was once a greater variety of birds than exists now – a sign that the world is going downhill and losing complexity, not evolving upwards.

“DINO FIGHT CLUBS” reported in Live Science and Science (AAAS) News 10 September 2021 and Paleobiology 6 September 2021, doi: 10.1017/pab.2021.29. Scientists at Royal Tyrell Museum and University of Alberta, Canada, have studied 528 skull bones of theropod dinosaurs and found 122 had bite scars from other dinosaurs. Overall, about 60% of the adult tyrannosaurids (T. rex, etc.) had bite marks. None of the younger dinosaurs had bite marks. Researchers estimated the relative sizes of the biters and the bitten by comparing the spacing between the teeth of the skull and size of the bite marks on them and concluded the aggressors and victims were of similar size. Caleb Brown, a curator at the Royal Tyrrell Museum, explained to Live Science: “Taken together, we can piece together how these animals were fighting. They were likely posturing and sizing each other up, then trying to grab each other’s heads between their jaws”. The researchers suggested the dinosaurs started biting one another when they reached sexual maturity, and this behaviour was part of competition for mates, territory or status. The smaller theropod dinosaurs did not have these bite marks. According to Science News, “None of these had bite marks, suggesting that—like the birds that descended from them—these animals may have stopped fighting violently over females, and instead started to woo them with shiny feathers”. The original report in in Paleobiology is entitled: “Intraspecific facial bite marks in tyrannosaurids provide insight into sexual maturity and evolution of bird-like intersexual display”. Links: Live Science, Science ED. COM. The belief that dinosaurs stopped fighting and started evolving feathers to find matesis pure fantasy, and has to be among the silliest explanations we have ever heard for how and why dinosaurs evolved into birds. Nevertheless, the bite marks on the dinosaur skulls are real, and may have been the result of dinosaurs fighting one another, which is simply a reminder of how violent the world was when these dinosaurs were buried and fossilised. When God created the world everything was very good, which means animals did not fight or harm one another. However, after the world was corrupted by human sin everything degenerated, and by Noah’s day, the world was filled with violence by people and animals. This corruption grieved God so much that he sent the worldwide flood to destroy that world (Genesis 6:11-13) and the resulting flood-formed sediment buried many dinosaurs bearing the signs of the violence God hates. That flood judgement was only a temporary solution to the problem. The real solution is that God sent Jesus to pay the penalty for the sin that brought corruption into the world. All those who put their faith in him can look forward to a new world where there is no violence, and nothing will harm or destroy (Isaiah 65:25). Creation Research.