11–20 of 44 posts
Assuming that birds are a group of therapod dinosaurs, as many scientists now describe them, it is true that all extant dinosaurs are feathered. But it is exciting to see these fossils discovered, so perhaps they should be described as extinct therapod feathers.
And mammals are synapsids, apparently[1], though that's not so much of an attention-grabber.
I wonder if we'll eventually find that all, or most, dinosaurs were feathered. I mean, it is a bit of a coincidence, that we find a dinosaur tail in amber and it just so happens to be from a feather dinosaur- it's a bit of a coincidence. Have other dinosaur body parts been found so well preserved?
https://www.sciencealert.com/a-new-dinosaur-fossil-has-been-...
For non-experts (like me) I think it comes as a surprise to learn just how rudimentary these people's techniques are.
I wonder if we'll eventually find that all, or most, dinosaurs were feathered. I mean, it is a bit of a coincidence, that we find a dinosaur tail in amber and it just so happens to be from a feather dinosaur- it's a bit of a coincidence. Have other dinosaur body parts been found so well preserved?
You know what many species of birds do when winter comes? they fly to the south for the warmth.
Could it be related?
Quite a stretch I will admit, but it's interesting to think about. Evolution is wondrous, but is always characterized by adaptation. They likely didn't have feathers just because nature was bored.
Could it be transit for the ice age, to migrate to a warmer region by flight?
When everything is ice and snow, walking and swimming are highly inferior to flight.
It's been a sad couple of years for people who grew up with Jurassic Park and now realize those scary beasts are just a bunch of mutant chickens.
Even the smaller ones would only be able to maintain their top speeds for very short durations. Double digit seconds at the very most, and one can be fairly sure not more than 20/30 kph.
Humans, and in fact nearly every animal, should be able to easily outrun and outlast any dinosaur. Probably the same as crocodiles, where being a lot faster and having more stamina does little good once those jaws close, or if you can't tell where the animal is reliably (like underwater). So they should be a lot like crocodiles : a human can pester them (on land) and be nearly perfectly certain that (s)he's never going to get caught by the animal (which is practiced in North Australia to get the things out of your bedroom).
It's been a sad couple of years for people who grew up with Jurassic Park and now realize those scary beasts are just a bunch of mutant chickens.
Just wait until they realize that these were not warm blooded animals and thus the large ones, including T-Rex, would have moved slower than large African animals (probably a lot slower), the fastest of which are about half as fast as normal human running speeds. for the same reason, our stamina should also be vastly superior to dinosaurs. If we just simply keep walking after running away, dinosaurs will never catch…
So, at least predator dinosaurs where likely faster than most people. We might do fine over long distances, but overall we are fairly slow.
As to being warm blooded, that's less meaningful for very large creatures. Body feathers are also a sign something is trying to conserve body heat which is a sign it's warm blooded.
Consequences be damned, if I could make Jurassic Park, I would.