Here's What Dinosaurs Really Looked Like
What did dinosaurs really look like? These latest scientific findings reveal unique physical features and uncover mysteries about their behaviors.
By Sean MowbrayMar 16, 2023 8:00 AM
Depiction of a feathered velociraptor (Credit: Noiel/Shutterstock)
If you were to meet a velociraptor, you wouldn’t be confronted with the tall, sleek and lizard-skinned beast from the hit Jurassic Park franchise. Instead, you would likely face off against a much smaller, feathery and colorful creature. Over the last few decades, scientists have learned a lot about what dinosaurs looked like — and that’s changing long-held beliefs.
Did Dinosaurs Have Feathers?
One of the biggest recent changes, says Paul Barrett, a researcher with the Natural History Museum in London, concerns the feathery coat of species such as the velociraptor.
“We now know from lots of fossils, in particular from China, that the relatives of velociraptor, and by extension velociraptor itself, was coated with feathers,” Barrett says. “They had very long, bird-like feathers on their forearms and downy feathers covering most of the rest of the body.”
The variety of plumage these meat-eaters sported was large. Caudipteryx, a diminutive theropod from the Early Cretaceous, had a tail fan full of feathers.
Meanwhile, researchers believe that the Caihong — from the Jurassic period — likely had shiny, iridescent feathers, possibly not too dissimilar from what we might see today on a hummingbird, says Sarah Davis, a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Texas.
More:
https://www.discovermagazine.com/planet-earth/heres-what-dinosaurs-really-looked-like
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teach me a freshman level geosciences course in college. He's specialty wasn't dinosaurs so he had to retrain himself in geochemistry to get a teaching position where he could support himself. Anyway, his pet peeve about any artist reconstructing ancient animal life was how they always had their subjects in some dramatic pose. Usually red skies with volcanos going off in the background. Over the years I've always got a chuckle when I've looked at artist's rendition of long ago scenes. In truth, except from the vegetation and such being different, most of these animals dwelled in the same scenery as we do today.
Neat rendition, but I suspect 50 years from now the subject will be refined yet again. But you can count on red skies and volcanos being included in the background.
