Comments on: Who Doesn’t Love Fuzzy Dinosaurs?

By: Cat

Cat — Fri, 26 Oct 2012 13:54:46 +0000

Some dinosaurs had feathers. Some more had protofeathers or hair-like structures, and there is a possibility that all dinosaurs had them. We don’t know that yet. That is what science can tell us for the moment. What science certainly cannot tell us is that ‘The point is this. Feathered dinosaurs are awesome. Deal with it.’ That purely a matter of your personal taste and has nothing to do with science. The opinion of those who think that scaly dinosaurs are more awesome is no more immature than yours.

By: bob

bob — Fri, 19 Oct 2012 09:14:40 +0000

ha! easter chicks ARE dinosaurs.

By: Henrique Niza

Henrique Niza — Thu, 06 Sep 2012 18:30:13 +0000

^ I wouldn’t say that just look at Sciurumimus. At the moment is parsimonious to say feather like structures are homologous to all dinosauria. Whether some lineages lost their integument is now the million dollar question.

By: Dan Peterson

Dan Peterson — Tue, 04 Sep 2012 20:32:46 +0000

I hate to break this to you Brian, but ‘scaly’ dinosaurs are here to stay as well, including some very scary ones in which the fossil record proves they were scaly, like Albertosaurus and Carnotaurus. The only problem with this feather buisness, is that the average person is now getting the wrong idea that most dinosaurs were covered with feathers or fuzz, and there is NO indication this is true.

By: Warren B.

Warren B. — Mon, 03 Sep 2012 12:20:23 +0000

“Granted, some restorations of feathery dinosaurs really do look stupid…”

Oh, and check out the UM’s main illustration:

http://www.nmni.com/um/What-s-on/Current-Exhibitions/Age-of-the-Dinosaur

By: Warren B.

Warren B. — Fri, 31 Aug 2012 15:10:05 +0000

“It’s as if they expect the Dinosauria to be consistent with an unchanging canon–sci-fi and comic fans suffer a similar apoplexy when one of their favorite characters deviates from their most cherished storyline.

The point is this. Feathered dinosaurs are awesome. Deal with it.”

Couldn’t agree more.

(The Ulster Museum in Belfast is having a talk about dinosaur feather colour in a week or two, as part of their current dino ‘season’. I gotta go check it out!)

By: Herman Diaz

Herman Diaz — Wed, 29 Aug 2012 20:26:38 +0000

“I don’t care whether or not you’re joking–it’s a dumb thing to say, especially if you’re broadcasting to the public on the internet.”

I concur. Whenever I think about ppl like that, I think about the deviations in the following links. I’ve never talked to anyone like that in person, but if I did, I’d bring up cassowaries &/or Hitchcock’s “The Birds”.

http://babbletrish.deviantart.com/art/Public-Service-Announcement-163855916

http://babbletrish.deviantart.com/art/Another-PSA-Addendum-284130725

By: Babbletrish

Babbletrish — Wed, 29 Aug 2012 02:53:59 +0000

I’d like to point out that the video entitled “How Science Ruined Everything” is brought to you by a person who was using a computer to edit pieces of film together and to communicate his message via the internet, and who also got to live past the age of fifteen in a house that contained a device that allowed him to stock perishable food in cold storage so he could eat it whenever he wanted, contained other devices that could heat said foods quickly to desirable temperatures, contained yet other devices that gave him light, heat, and hot and cold running water at times when such things would naturally be unavailable, and was connected to the rest of the world via television, phones, and the aforementioned internet.

Also, if you think feathered dinosaurs look “stupid”, “lame”, “goofy”, or “gay” (by the way, careful, your latent homophobia is showing), why do you hate America? (Bald eagles are feathered dinosaurs, ergo…)

By: Zhen

Zhen — Wed, 29 Aug 2012 01:56:29 +0000

All I can say is that the dinosaurs in JP4 damn better have feathers.

By: Kim

Kim — Tue, 28 Aug 2012 22:34:16 +0000

I feel that Hollywood is missing a huuuuge opportunity with feathered dinosaurs. I mean, the cheesy B movie just writes itself! Someone see’s a large, strange looking bird in their back yard. They go outside to investigate and take a picture to upload to Instagram. Too late they realize that it isn’t a bird, it’s a dinosaur! And it’s not alone! And they’re hungry! OH NOOOOOOO!!! XD

By: Zach Miller

Zach Miller — Tue, 28 Aug 2012 17:49:58 +0000

More than just being awesome, feathered dinosaurs are FACT. Whining that feathers are “ruining dinosaurs” is a bit like denying reality, and that’s what bugs me, personally.

By: Decimus

Decimus — Tue, 28 Aug 2012 16:43:44 +0000

I always ask people, “If feathers make an animal less scary, then where does that leave the Cassowary?”.

People are scared to death of my pet Emu, even though he lacks the teeth and forelimbs of a Non-Avian Dinosaur and is about the friendliest bird you’d ever meet.

By: Ashley

Ashley — Tue, 28 Aug 2012 16:31:52 +0000

People typically hate change. Dinosaurs had feathers. It’s undeniable, and it doesn’t make them any less scary. I was offended that they said that the “purpose” of dinosaurs is to be scary. I don’t care whether or not you’re joking–it’s a dumb thing to say, especially if you’re broadcasting to the public on the internet. Being “dumb” is so 1990. Smart is sexy.

By: Leigh

Leigh — Tue, 28 Aug 2012 15:25:11 +0000

I like feathered dinosaurs, too. I find the whole idea very exciting. (And it’s also made me a lot more interested in birds.)

I could imagine paleontologists from the far future finding fossil bones of long-extinct birds and mammals and reconstructing them naked, without fur or feathers. That would be just plain wrong. Even people who are familiar with animals often do not recognize them without fur (witness all the “chupacabra” sightings that turn out to be dogs or coyotes with severe mange).

Scaly dinosaurs may be just as wrong. Why would anyone want to be wrong?

By: Jaime Headden

Jaime Headden — Tue, 28 Aug 2012 15:00:08 +0000

About Beipiaosaurus inexpectatus, at least recently some pushback has occurred over the proliferation of "novel feather types," suggesting that some of these are preservational artefacts. This would make the integument form and shape a little closer to standard types I-V progression without much deviation, thus taking "novel types" and placing variation in the frame of poor preservation. See this link and... Foth, C. 2012. On the identification of feather structures in stem-line representatives of birds: Evidence from fossils and actuopalaeontology. Paläontologische Zeitschrift 86:91-102.