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| By Kenneth
Chang ABCNEWS.com May 26 Maybe even mighty Tyrannosaurus rex had feathers.
Its certainly beginning to look that way, says Philip Currie, curator of dinosaurs at the Royal Tyrrell Museum in Drumheller, Alberta, Canada. The coolest thing, here you have another family of dinosaurs altogether with feathers. Like a Down Jacket That isnt suggesting that theropod dinosaurs, which include T. rex and velociraptors, flew. The early coverings were probably for insulating warmth. Writing in Thursdays issue of the journal Nature, a trio of Chinese researchers describe a new species of dinosaur found in northeastern China in the same deposits that have yielded three other feathered dinosaurs. It suggests lots of dinosaurs, even tyrannosaurs, have feathers and supports the hypothesis that the bird feather is derived from such kinds of filamentary structures, says Xing Xu of the Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology in Beijing and lead author of the Nature paper. Strange Looks
The new species, dubbed Beipaosaurus inexpectus, is a primitive member of a subgroup of dinosaurs known as therizinosaurs. The strange features of therizinosaurs short tails, very large claws, small heads, long arms, four toes instead of three as in other theropods had perplexed paleontologists about where to place them in the dinosaur family tree. Because Beipaosaurus is a mix of therizinosaur and theropod features, it provides an evolutionary link between therizinosaurs and the rest of the theropods. Unlike other theropods, Beipaosaurus may have been a plant eater, not a meat eater. They had strange teeth, Currie says. We really dont know. At seven feet long, Beipaosaurus was a relatively small therizinosaur. Its a very gangly looking animal, Currie says. Its bigger than a man but not by much, Beipaosaurus filament covering, seen around the arms, legs and shoulders, is similar to that of Sinosaurpteryx the first feathered dinosaur described a couple of years ago. They seems to be like the down feathers in birds, Xu says. Or Not Feathers at All? Scientists opposed to the idea that birds descended from dinosaurs see otherwise. The filament impressions, says Larry Martin of the University of Kansas, are probably left behind by connective tissue fibers beneath the skin. I think its pretty clear theyre not homologues of feathers, Martin says. They have no features of feathers.
Luis Chiappe of the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County dismisses Martins hypothesis that the impressions are merely tendons and ligaments. The only ones having these types of things are the theropods, he says. Is that a coincidence? I dont think so. These structures that most of us regard as protofeathers are showing up in a number of theropod lineages. I would bet they would also be in creatures like a T. rex. That feathers havent been seen in any T. rex fossils doesnt mean Chiappe has already lost his bet. Stuff like skin, scales and feathers rarely fossilize, and, Currie says, if tyrannosaurs had feathers, they likely shed them as they grew into adults. You dont need them as they get big, he says. Then you have a problem getting rid of heat. If tyrannosaurs had them, it would only be in the juveniles. Maybe a baby tyrannosaurus looked something like a cute, fuzzy baby chick.  |
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S U
M M A R Y A new species of dinosaur found in China appears to have been covered with feather-like filaments.
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B. inexpectus was found among rich fossil deposits
in Chinas Liaoning Province, which had previously yielded several
other feathered dinosaurs and early birds. (ABCNEWS.com)
