Dinosaur Files

What do you think of feathered dinosaurs?

Since the 90's more and more dinosaurs are being found with impressions of feathers in the fossil. It seems a large number of dinosaurs actually had feathers. And more and more museums put feathers on their dinosaur models. What do you think about this development? Did you like the old look dinosaurs had better or do you think they look prettier with feathers on them? Not all of them had feathers. At least an adult T. Rex had scales. The young ones had fluff like chicks.

Public Comments

1. I don't think it's a question of taste! I've seen the fossils with feathers on them, and they are incredibly interesting. I've also seen some replicas of skin imprints found on other species. I don't think they all had scales, I don't think they all had feathers. And I don't think they really care either way what we think! Either they had feathers or they didn't. What will be interesting is to see just how many continue to be found with impressions of either.
2. Birds evolved from dinosaurs .What they have found are bird ancestors.
3. First of all, bird evolution is one of the most controversial areas in evolutionary paleontology and evolutionists often disagree and criticize each other. We hear a lot of reports of feathered dinosaurs being found, but what you rarely hear, is that the main candidates are believed by many experts to simply be frayed collagen fibers, or hair like structures that could have supported a frill or crest like those on iguanas, or are on animals that are not dinosaurs, but flightless birds. The drawings are certainly not what we find; they are just the artists’ imagination. Dr. Alan Feduccia, a world authority on birds and an evolutionist, along with his coworkers have presented a substantial body of evidence to support their view that there are, in fact, no known dinosaurs with feathers (they believe birds evolved from different reptiles, but not dinosaurs). And then you have ones like Archaeoraptor that was proven to be a hoax. Who knows how many times that will happen. All these announcements of feathered dinosaurs cause a lot of media fanfare, but when they are refuted, there is scarcely a whimper in the media. You may be thinking, “But what about Archaeopteryx? That has been used for years and years.” Archaeopteryx was a true perching bird with fully formed wings and flight feathers, as well as a large wishbone for the attachment of muscles used for the downstroke of the wings. So what is all the fuss about; why is Archaeopteryx such an icon of dinosaur to bird evolution? Well, it had teeth in the bill, claws on the wings, no keel on the breast bone, an unfused backbone, and a long, bony tail, which are all characteristics most people associate with reptiles. But as Dr. Gary Parker said, “...the reptile-like features are not really as reptile-like as you might suppose. The familiar ostrich, for example, has claws on its wings that are even more ‘reptile-like’ than those of Archaeopteryx. Several birds, such as the hoatzin, don’t have much of a keel. The penguin has unfused backbones and a bony tail. No living birds have socketed teeth, but some fossil birds do. Besides, some reptiles have teeth and some don’t, so the presence or absence of teeth is not particularly important in distinguishing the two groups.” Dr. Alan Feduccia (like I said, an evolutionist, and by the way, one who doesn’t like creationists like me quoting him) said, “Paleontologists have tried to turn Archaeopteryx into an earth-bound, feathered dinosaur. But it’s not. It is a bird, a perching bird. And no amount of ‘paleobabble’ is going to change that.” On top of that, scientists have found fossils of what they would call “true birds” in layers of rock that they date as being older than Archaeopteryx. That presents a problem for them. I believe Archaeopteryx was something of a mosaic like a bat or platypus. Similar structures simply point to a common designer. God knew what designs would work well in multiple animals. What they need to find, is a fossil showing scales turning into feathers, or a leg turning into a wing, or the reptile lung turning into the avian lung. How you can take a “two-way” reptile lung and evolve it into a fully functional “one-way” bird lung without causing extinction of the species is quite a conundrum. There is no credible evidence that dinosaurs evolved into birds. Dinosaurs have always been dinosaurs and birds have always been birds.