"Paleontologists ruined my childhood!"

AXavierB

So my old interest in dinosaurs was revived recently when me and two of my friends randomly decided to watch the Jurassic Park trilogy together. A few weeks ago I found out about the discovery of the feathered tyrannosauroid Yutyrannus huali, which has led to a lot of speculation about whether big theropods like T. rex could have had feathers. I've known since forever that dromaeosaurs and similar dinosaurs were feathered because of their close relation to birds, but the thought of a fuzzy T. rex certainly takes some getting used to.

I can totally understand why some people might be disappointed to find out that a new scientific discovery contradicts something they believed when they were kids, but it kind of veers into obnoxious territory when you have others going on about how science has "ruined" dinosaurs and making obligatory comparisons to giant chickens and turkeys. I've even seen people outright refuse to believe that certain species had feathers unless they're presented with direct evidence, even though what we know about evolution and the fossil record makes it easy to infer in many cases.

I just don't know why having feathers automatically makes them ridiculous and laughable. We have birds alive today that could easily kill you and I don't see anyone making fun of those. How are fuzzy animals inherently less intimidating when we have wolves, lions and grizzlies running around?

Also, Pluto isn't a planet.

Noimporta

I don't know about T-Rexes, but Velociraptors lost plenty of their appeal as smart, somewhat organized predators once I found out they were punt sized.

ClockworkUniverse

^Well, that's not so much a new paleontology discovery so much as it's Spielberg just making shit up to make them scarier.

Ironweaver

Also, Pluto isn't a planet.

<

Now you've pissed me off. 

AXavierB

I don't know about T-Rexes, but Velociraptors lost plenty of their appeal as smart, somewhat organized predators once I found out they were punt sized.

Well same here, but I learned that shortly after I first saw the movie so I didn't get a chance to be genuinely disillusioned by it.

Plus, even though Velociraptors were essentially just tiny flightless birds with teeth, we still have Utahraptor being even bigger than the raptors in the movie.

Bee

And rather put upon by a batshit insane T-Rex.

Icalasari

If anything, giant feathered lizards are even SCARIER

Alkthash

Noimporta - all it would take to make turkey sized velociraptors scary is to have them swarm or hunt in large packs. Fifteen of the tiny raptors chasing you instead of three or four big raptors.

Re the evidence that more dinosaurs might have had feathers - I really hope this adds some color to new illustrations of dinosaurs. Thinking back, most drawings of them used such dull and boring colors, with things like spots or stripes also being rare.

AXavierB

Noimporta - all it would take to make turkey sized velociraptors scary is to have them swarm or hunt in large packs. Fifteen of the tiny raptors chasing you instead of three or four big raptors.
Re the evidence that more dinosaurs might have had feathers - I really hope this adds some color to new illustrations of dinosaurs. Thinking back, most drawings of them used such dull and boring colors, with things like spots or stripes also being rare.

Actually, there are several feathered dinosaur fossils that retain pigment traces which scientists have been able to use to determine coloration. Microraptor was covered in iridescent black feathers and another species I think turned out to have been brown with cream-colored bands along the tail.

Bee

Yeah, I'm not really having trouble seeing the scary in dinofeathers.  Especially since it's so distinctly not the kind of thing we're used to now, it'd come off as some kind of massively fucked-up patchwork terror that still has a shitload of teeth.

Icalasari

^^ That's pretty awesome



Any brightly coloured dinos?

AXavierB

I don't know if any have been confirmed yet, but if they were anywhere near as diverse as modern birds I can't imagine there wouldn't be.

Sinosauropteryx was orange and Anchiornis seems to have had a red crest on its head. I hope there were dinosaurs that looked like tropical birds and such. :B

Icalasari

Maybe one that looked like a macaw? 8D?

AXavierB

Anchiornis? Looked more like this:

Hookah_Hashish

Also, Pluto isn't a planet.

Oh, so because it's a dwarf, it isn't a planet in your eyes, huh? You sizist bastard.

glennmagusharvey

Also, Pluto isn't a planet.

Super Lazuli

I really think they should've gone the other direction with that decision and given us like 60some planets.

Y'know

for lulz

AXavierB

Now that I think about it, it would probably help if more people who made dinosaur reconstructions would stop depicting feathered dinosaurs as standard reptilian ones with awkward coats of pillow fuzz haphazardly tacked on. The result always ends up looking like a bizarre lizard in an unwashed bird costume.

glennmagusharvey

Someone should do that to Ridley.

Lai

^

*Tears you apart*

glennmagusharvey

The whole point of that comment was to mock Ridley.

Formaldehyde

Looks like a Rick James raptor.

JHM

Actually, the "Velociraptors" in Jurassic Park were supposed to be Deinonychus, which were that big; it's canon that the characters actually got the name wrong, and then only once—I'm not sure that they actually talk about what the therapsids in question were...

Not sure exactly why I know this.

Also, giant meat-eating toothy bird monsters are badass and terrifying and anyone that denies it is stupid.

Icalasari

Or is an even gianter meat-eating toothy bird monster