Scientists uncover completely preserved feathered dino tail encased in amber

[terry78]

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/...tail-amber-theropod-myanmar-burma-cretaceous/




Jurassic World, here we come.

 

[Lighthouse]

If people can deny facts like climate change and evolution, I can deny that dinosaurs looked like giant chickens.

 

[Fincher]

I'm totally in denial about dinosaur feathers. The devil must have put it there.

 

[terry78]

I'm totally in denial about dinosaur feathers. The devil must have put it there.

 

[BrollySupersj]

Dinosaurs were ruined for me when the evidence of feathers came out, but this is quite cool. Hopefully one day a more complete specimen can be found.

 

[Boom]

This is so outrageously cool.

 

[jaqua99]

If people can deny facts like climate change and evolution, I can deny that dinosaurs looked like giant chickens.

Well technically evolution is a theory, hasn't really been quantified I don't think. Climate change likely has. Research is tricky.

Both are real though. I personally love the idea of dinosaurs beng giant ostridges

 

[Boom]

The discovery of dino-feathers has reinvigorated my fascination with these creatures. Perhaps it's not as grand as the old myth of giant tyrant lizards, but I find this all extremely interesting.

Still waiting for scientists to discover just how feathered the T-Rex was. Hope to see it in my lifetime.

 

[Kahran Ramsus]

The whole thing with regards to feathers and the nature of the relationship between birds and other maniraptors is the most fascinating thing I've seen in paleontology. I love that stuff and I think this is fantastic. Too bad it was found in Myanmar and is going to jewelry instead of some museum somewhere. If they found this in North America, I'd go to Montana or Alberta or Colorado or wherever to see it in a museum.

 

[Iceman]

Jurassic Park, game on!

 

[KRYPTON INC.]

Dinosaurs were ruined for me when the evidence of feathers came out, but this is quite cool. Hopefully one day a more complete specimen can be found.

I can't help but find this attitude strange, man. I mean... I was crazy about Dinos as a kid. But the evidence is the evidence. How does that "ruin" your fascination or appreciation of them and the science behind finding out about the nature of their existence?

 

[Marvolo]

A t-rex is just as fascinating and badass whether it has feathers or not. Feathers don't make it a *****. Is a hawk or falcon any less dangerous and formidable due to its feathers? Is an owl any less of a deadly hunter because of its feathers? Is an emu any less capable of gutting a man because of its feathers? It's foolish to think of dinosaurs as giant chickens and lame just because they have feathers.

 

[BrollySupersj]

I can't help but find this attitude strange, man. I mean... I was crazy about Dinos as a kid. But the evidence is the evidence. How does that "ruin" your fascination or appreciation of them and the science behind finding out about the nature of their existence?

I don't really have an explanation, it just happened that way. That child like wonder I had with them is gone. *shrug*

 

[Boom]

 

[BrollySupersj]

I do wonder, with all the relations dinosaurs and birds share, why they don't change the name to Dinoaves.

 

[Vartha]

Heard about this before work last night. Missed the actual news story tho. Pretty cool!

 

[Pink Ranger]

I do wonder, with all the relations dinosaurs and birds share, why they don't change the name to Dinoaves.

I am no zoology expert, but I have a feeling that within my lifetime, birds will officially no longer be a separate taxonomical class than reptiles, and instead will be an order under the reptile class.

 

[Drizzle]

Now there's no excuse, Chris Pratt better kiss one of them velociraptors in the next one.

 

[Mike_D202]

Dinos didn't have feathers until much later down the road when evolution started taking place, SO...you still have your lizard monsters.

 

[ComicChick]

I do wonder, with all the relations dinosaurs and birds share, why they don't change the name to Dinoaves.

birdasaurs?

 

[Galactus123]

T-Rex probably looked like this:

 

[Kahran Ramsus]

I do wonder, with all the relations dinosaurs and birds share, why they don't change the name to Dinoaves.

Tradition. Although the larger group that consists of dinosaurs and pterosaurs are called avemetatarsalians.

 

[Fincher]

A t-rex is just as fascinating and badass whether it has feathers or not. Feathers don't make it a *****. Is a hawk or falcon any less dangerous and formidable due to its feathers? Is an owl any less of a deadly hunter because of its feathers? Is an emu any less capable of gutting a man because of its feathers? It's foolish to think of dinosaurs as giant chickens and lame just because they have feathers.

What makes you think everyone's appreciation of dinosaurs is just based on their ability to kill things?

 

[Kahran Ramsus]

Dinos didn't have feathers until much later down the road when evolution started taking place, SO...you still have your lizard monsters.

Not necessarily. It is nowhere near certain where exactly feathers developed. There is some evidence of them in ornithischia and even pterosaurs, whch means it might have been from a common ancestor of all of them from the Early or Mid Triassic.

Or maybe not. We'll see what information the next 5-10 years brings us. The only thing we can say for certain is that all archosaurs do not have them, because crocodilians clearly don't.

 

[Kahran Ramsus]

I am no zoology expert, but I have a feeling that within my lifetime, birds will officially no longer be a separate taxonomical class than reptiles, and instead will be an order under the reptile class.

The term reptile is very poorly defined. Unlike mammals and birds, it includes a bunch of different animals that aren't very closely related to each other. I think more likely the term "reptile" will just fall out of favor altogether. In terms of cladistics, I usually see it used as a sort of synonym for all amniotes, which would also make all mammals reptiles, as well as birds. I've also seen it used to refer to all diapsids as a group.

Let's just say the answer to what is and what isn't a reptile is rather murky.