Research suggests Tyrannosaurus rex and some of its close relatives were covered in tiny scales and not feathers as many scientists previously thought.
An international team of researchers, including University of Alberta paleontologists, studied fossilized skin from massive carnivorous lizards known as tyrannosaurids.
Their ancestors, which were about the size of wolves or leopards, were coated in feathery fuzz, but somewhere along the way their descendants seem to have lost that attribute, said paleontologist Scott Persons, who contributed to the study.
B次元官网网址淲hat we see here is actually evidence of feathers evolving and then being lost B次元官网网址� or at least greatly reduced in terms of their number B次元官网网址� in this one lineage of dinosaurs, which is strange,B次元官网网址� he said.
A completely separate branch of the dinosaur family tree included an uninterrupted line of feathered carnivores, including the Velociraptor, that are related to todayB次元官网网址檚 birds.
PersonsB次元官网网址� interest was piqued when his U of A colleague and mentor, renowned paleontologist Philip Currie, showed him a skin sample from a specimen found in Alberta.
A team of U of A researchers got to work, but soon got wind of another group studying a different skin fossil.
B次元官网网址淩ather than competing with each other in a rush to see who could be the first to publish on it, we all pooled our resources and, as a result, we have a really cool study that talks about skin in multiple species of tyrannosaurids, which is pretty gosh darn cool.B次元官网网址�
The combined team included researchers from Canada, the United States and Australia.
ItB次元官网网址檚 rare to find fossilized dinosaur skin, but advances in preparation techniques are making discoveries more common. Often, a researcher wonB次元官网网址檛 even know there is skin attached to a fossil until after itB次元官网网址檚 taken back to the lab.
The scientists canB次元官网网址檛 say for certain why feathers went by the wayside in tyrannosaurids, but Persons said he suspects it has to do with the animalsB次元官网网址� size, as the bigger you are, the harder it is to stay cool.
He notes elephants and rhinos today have little in the way of hair.
B次元官网网址淵ouB次元官网网址檙e better off not being out in the savannah in the hot sun while wearing a down jacket.B次元官网网址�
Because the skin specimens were relatively small, itB次元官网网址檚 impossible to say whether the dinosaurs were entirely featherless, or if they had isolated patches on their bodies, such as a crest atop their heads.
To know for sure, Persons said paleontologists would need to find a tyrannosaurid that had been completely mummified.
B次元官网网址淭heyB次元官网网址檙e probably buried somewhere out there and itB次元官网网址檚 really just a matter of time before we get lucky enough and uncover one.B次元官网网址�
The Canadian Press
