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buglord posted:I went to a natural history museum recently and something that came to mind is if things like the T-Rex still looked like that or if they all had feathers and stuff now. Was it just tetrapods or did things like stegosaurus or triceratops also have feathers or what? serious reply: to the best of our knowledge, stegosaurus and its close relatives did not have feathers. we have no evidence for triceratops or its more well known relatives like styracosaurus or protoceratops having feathers, but there is at least one ceratopsian, psittacosaurus, that did have what appears to be structures most likely derived from feathers. other ornithiscians show more concrete evidence of feathers but they are far less common than in theropods. i'm partial to the idea that feathers are, if not basal to all archosaurs, then to at least ornithodira (dinosaurs and pterasaurs), but there is not any direct evidence suggesting this yet, just some possible clues such as feathers possibly being present in both pterasaurs (in the form of pycnofibers) and dinosaurs (specifically theropods and ornithiscians; i don't think any sauropods have ever been found with evidence for feathers or structures homologous to them).
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Dec 19, 2023 01:07
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Tree Bucket posted:While the serious replies are happening, where are we up to with quetzalcoatlas? Could it actually fly? What would it have eaten? How is it real??? quetz almost certainly did fly, i think the main debate now is whether it was a relatively powerful soaring flier or it could only fly in short bursts for short distances like a turkey. i don't know enough about biomechanics of flight to add anything worthwhile so i just choose to believe they spent a lot of time airborne 'cause it's way cooler. likewise, ideas about its eating habits are all over the place. it probably was not piscivorous like a lot of pterasaus were given its habitat, but beyond that, we won't know until and unless we find one with fossilized food in its gut (which is entirely possible, so here's to hoping).
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Dec 19, 2023 01:32
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buglord posted:Sue came to our regional museum when I was a child. I dont remember what she looked like, but I remember having my little 7-8 year old mind blown. Shame the museum closed down. your dinosaurs are wrong is extremely top tier dinosaur youtube here's a video from them that's pretty pertinent to this thread: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UK-3rlwyKxI they have their own separate yoytube channel now and their recent videos are very, very in-depth. velociraptor and herrerasaurus are my favorite ydaw episodes.
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Dec 19, 2023 03:33
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Hyzenth1ay posted:This is probably a dumb question but why did the big tyrannosaurus have vestigial arms? What evolutionary advantage is it to be unable to claw or balance or climb? Could they right themselves if toppled? trex did not have vestigal arms, they were still functional, just very reduced carnotaurus and its close relatives did have entirely vestigal arms though
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Dec 20, 2023 21:03
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