Dinosaur tail found in amber

[Beati Dogu]

Only a little one, but still. It's 99 million years old and covered in feathers.





http://edition.cnn.com/2016/12/08/health/dinosaur-...

[marksx]

Here's the paper

http://www.cell.com/current-biology/pdf/S0960-9822...

[perdu]

I hope they don't include these in Jurassic Park, a small therapod that could run round in the palm of your hand

No telling what the kids would come back with if they were that small

But seriously thanks for the link and the story, every time we turn round there is more to come

We are living in very exciting times

Thanks

[Eric Mc]

It's becoming more and more obvious that the dinosaurs never became extinct. We've just been misnaming them.

[funkyrobot]

Eric Mc said:

It's becoming more and more obvious that the dinosaurs never became extinct. We've just been misnaming them.

They work in councils and other public sector bodies throughout the land.

[Eric Mc]

That's insulting to dinosaurs.

[Eric Mc]

There might very well be original tissue, bone and feathers in there.

[Moonhawk]

Well preserved ant in there too.

[Beati Dogu]

perdu said:

I hope they don't include these in Jurassic Park, a small therapod that could run round in the palm of your hand

No telling what the kids would come back with if they were that small

But seriously thanks for the link and the story, every time we turn round there is more to come

We are living in very exciting times

Thanks

My pleasure. They actually had little bitty dinosaurs in Jurassic Park II. No feathers though:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mGs4dcUg-MY

[Derek Smith]

Not an impressive dinosaur. It sits on a tree and then gets it tail stuck in a bit a secreted resin. No wonder it's extinct.

[Eric Mc]

Maybe it was kipping under a tree and then the tree fell on it?

[SpudLink]

perdu said:

I hope they don't include these in Jurassic Park, a small therapod that could run round in the palm of your hand

If the first Jurassic Park was being made now, I would expect them to portray most of the smaller dinosaurs as feathered. It's just that feathers seldom survive in the fossil records. The idea of the all dinosaurs being giant lumbering beasts with naked grey skin is presumably as unlikely as all mammals being like elephants, hippos and rhinos. Unfortunately that's the image we all grew up with, and it's cemented itself in the public imagination.

[Mr E]

Eric Mc said:

It's becoming more and more obvious that the dinosaurs never became extinct. We've just been misnaming them.

One of my favourite XKCD's

[Simpo Two]

But - IIRC dinosuars were cold-blooded and birds are warm blooded. Bit of a biological leap that, poikilothermic/homeothermic.

[Johnnytheboy]

Simpo Two said:

But - IIRC dinosuars were cold-blooded and birds are warm blooded. Bit of a biological leap that, poikilothermic/homeothermic.

Dinosaurs were warm blooded IIRC.

[Simpo Two]

How would the fossil record show that, if at all? Reptiles are cold-blooded. Generally, due to surface area/volume ratio, warm bloodedness become more essential the smaller you are, but there are of course exceptions.

[Johnnytheboy]

OK I've done a bit of googling and it appears that the jury is out!

http://www.livescience.com/51162-dinosaurs-warm-bl...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Physiology_of_dinosa...

[Einion Yrth]

Johnnytheboy said:

OK I've done a bit of googling and it appears that the jury is out!

http://www.livescience.com/51162-dinosaurs-warm-bl...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Physiology_of_dinosa...

Do all mammals have fur?

[CoolHands]

So basically, we don't know much.

[Eric Mc]

Simpo Two said:

How would the fossil record show that, if at all? Reptiles are cold-blooded. Generally, due to surface area/volume ratio, warm bloodedness become more essential the smaller you are, but there are of course exceptions.

There are a number of physiological factors which are preserved in the fossil record that indicate that some (if not all) dinosaurs were warm blooded. The best evidence comes from bone cross sections. Dinosaur bone is far more closely related to bird bone when the number of blood vessels in the bone is examined. Warm blooded animals (like birds and mammals) contain quite a large number of blood vessels. Reptile, amphibian and fish bones (cold blooded) have far fewer.

On rare occasions internal organs are fossilised. On even rare occasions, that organ is a heart. On the few occasions a dinosaur heart has been fossilised, on examination it seems that these hearts were four chambered. Birds and mammals have four chambered hearts. Fish, amphibians and reptiles have two chambered hearts.

When the firs skeletons of Archaeopteryx were found in the 1850s, it was assumed it was a small dinosaur. Everything about its skeleton said dinosaur. It was only when it was realised that the sediment in which the fossil lay showed the outline of feathers that it was reclassified as a bird. We now know that Archaeopteryx was actually a feathered dinosaur. It had teeth (no modern birds do). It had a bony tail (no modern birds do). It didn't have a wishbone (all modern birds do).

It seems that feathers evolved in dinosaurs and birds evolved out of the dinosaur line. Indeed, the distinction between birds and dinosaurs is getting harder and harder to distinguish - especially now that we know so many dinosaurs had feathers.

And some dinosaurs had hollow bones filled with air sacs - just like birds.

And, of course, there were lots and lots and lots of small dinosaurs as well as the giant ones.

Edited by Eric Mc on Monday 12th December 23:21