PZ Myers. 2004 Oct 07. Why, it looks like a big chicken!. <http://pharyngula.org/index/weblog/why_it_looks_like_a_big_chicken/>. Accessed 2008 Dec 01.
Posted on M00o93H7pQ09L8X1t49cHY01Z5j4TT91fGfr on Thursday, October 07, 2004
Why, it looks like a big chicken!
Here are some closeups of some fossilized bones from the early Cretaceous. Look closely:
Integumentary structures of IVPPV11579. a, b, Filamentous integumentary structures along the dorsal edge of the distal caudal vertebrae, photograph(a) and linedrawing(b). c, d, Close-up of the integumentary structures showing the simple branching pattern, photograph(c) and linedrawing(d). Not to scale.
They've got fine filamentous feathery hairs all over them—it's a dinosaur with feathers. One very cool thing about it is that this is a basal tyrannosaurid, a new species named Dilong paradoxus.
a, Skeletal reconstruction showing preserved bones. b, Left maxilla in lateral view. c, Right maxilla in lateral view. d, Left postorbital in medial view. e,Right squamosal in lateral view. f, Premaxillary tooth in lingual view. Note the flat lingual surface. g, Maxillary tooth in labial view. h, Distal caudal vertebrae associated with branched integumentary structures. i, Reconstructed left manus in dorsal view. j, Left ischium in lateral view. k, Left metatarsals in anterior view. Scalebar, 10cm(a).
Steven Spielberg doesn't have to rush back and redo the digital imagery in Jurassic Park just yet, though. This is a basal tyrannosaurid; it's an ancestor to the T. rex we all know and love. It's smaller (about 1.6m long), older, and has three-fingered hands. It's bigger many-times-great-grandchildren could have easily lost the feathers with their increase in size, just as large mammals like elephants and rhinos lose their ancestral insulation.
One last picture—when you think tyrannosaur, everyone wants to see the skull. It looks a little less like a chicken now, that's for sure.
Dilong paradoxus. a,c, Photographs of the skull of IVPPV14243 in left lateral(a) and dorsal (c) views. Scalebar, 2cm. b, d, Cranial reconstruction in left lateral (b) and dorsal (d) views. e, Braincase of IVPPV14242 in ventral view. f, A dentary tooth of IVPPV14242 in lingual view, with detailed views of the anterior and posterior margins. g,h, A middle cervical vertebra of IVPPV14242 in left lateral (g) and posterior (h) views. Scale bar, 1cm. i, Left scapula and coracoid of IVPPV14243 in lateral view. Scalebar, 2cm. j, Left humerus of IVPPV14243 in anterior view. Scalebar, 1cm. k, Left ilium of IVPPV14243 in medial view. The acetabular region is crushed. Scalebar, 2cm. Abbreviations: ?adc, ?anterodorsal concavity; an, angular; ap, acromion process; bc, basioccipital condyle; bf, brevisfossa; bpp, basiopterygoid process; bsr, basisphenoid recess; cp,cultriform process; cr,coracoid; d,dentary; dpc, deltopectoral crest; ep, epipophysis; fr, frontal; hh, humeral head; isf, interspinous ligamentous fossa; j, jugal; l, lacrimal; lp, lateral process; m,maxilla; mf, maxillary fenestra; n.nasal; nc, nuchalcrest; p, parietal; pf, prefrontal; pmf, promaxillary fenestra; po, pneumatic opening; pp, posterior process; pr, pneumatic recess; prm, premaxilla; przp, prezygapophysis; pzp, postzygapophysis; qj, quadratojugal; rap, retroarticular process; s,scapula; sa, surangular; sc, sagittal crest; sq, squamosal; sqjf, squamosal-quadratojugal flange; yc, Y-shaped crest.
Xu X, Norell MA, Kuang X, Wang X, Zhao Q, Jia C (2004) Basal tyrannosauroids from China and evidence for protofeathers in tyrannosauroids. Nature 431:680-684.
Posted by PZ Myers on 10/07 at 07:08 AM
Science • Organisms • 1 Trackbacks • Other weblogs • Permalink
Science • Organisms • 1 Trackbacks • Other weblogs • Permalink
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Absolutely great photos Paul...Thanks! I'd read brief accounts on the Internet, but your screen size links are truly beautiful. Look at the orbit! What big eyes you have T-rex grandma.
#: Posted by on 10/07 at 07:31 AM
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It’s bigger many-times-great-grandchildren could have easily lost the feathers with their increase in size
This may be a dumb question, but is the presence or absence of feathers on T.rex completely up in the air? I had assumed -what with T. rex being so much more familiar than Dilong whatsisname - there would have been some at least preliminary consensus on that.#: Posted by on 10/07 at 08:38 AM -
Not completely up in the air: there have been fossils of T. rex that show patches of scaly skin. But 'absence of evidence is not evidence of absence' and all that. They could have been largely scaly with decorative feathery flourishes here and there.
Until those darn dilatory physicists get their act together and build me my time machine, though, we're going to have to piece the story together from fragmentary evidence like this.
Carl: beautiful in a carnivorous sense. That guy was a little shorter than I am tall, but he could easily and avidly tear me to bits, I'm sure. When I get my time machine, I'm going to be very, very careful. - Just make sure you sneeze on him before you come back. I'd love to live in a mansion and have it rain donuts.
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Yes, but the important question is, "Did it taste like chicken?"
Based on the NPR story I just heard and various vague recollections, the cladograms have long predicted that the ancestral condition for tyrannosaurids was proto-feathers (although large adults, who don't have heat-conservation issues, may have lost them).
Google reveals...Ah yes. PZ covered this back in January:
http://pharyngula.org/index/weblog/comments/bird_cladogram/
Score another one for evolution.... -
Nick, I have a simple answer for your question: time machine.
I think there's an opportunity for corporate sponsorship of this research, from KFC. - Mmmmm. Chicken.
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A friend of mine once did a cladogram of taste and concluded that "tastes like chicken" was the primitive tetapod condition and since crocs taste like chicken and chickens are maniraptorans (the group of saurischian dinos here) - by the extant phylogenetic bracket method this organism probably tasted like chicken. I suppose if he had written it up he could have submitted it to JIR (journal of irreproducible results).
#: Posted by on 10/07 at 11:21 AM
- Hey, JIR just started back up, your friend could still publish his ground-breaking research.
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I meant to add the JIR url:
http://www.jir.com/ -
Even if adult T. rex was featherless, that still leaves the possibility of fuzzy, yellow T. rex hatchlings, ala Tweety Bird; which, quite frankly, is too surreal an image to pass up lightly.
#: Posted by on 10/07 at 01:49 PM
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The Annals of Improbable Research published an article on the "tastes like chicken" phenomenon:
http://www.improb.com/airchives/paperair/volume4/v4i4/chicken.htm#: Posted by Matt Reece on 10/07 at 04:28 PM -
Um. If the researchers had been operating under Intelligent Design Theory they would have predicted this. Also you can't find any transitional forms between these feathered dinosaurs and whatever they're most closely related to. This doesn't have anything to do with evolution, because the fossil could have been found by an ID Paleyontologist.
#: Posted by on 10/07 at 05:23 PM
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And how exactly does ID predict this...?
#: Posted by on 10/07 at 09:05 PM
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William Dembski, widely regarded as the Isaac Newton of Information Theory, said "First off, let's be clear that design can accommodate all the results of Darwinism." And in the same essay he later says "What's more, as a framework for doing science intelligent design is more robust and sensitive to the possibilities that nature might actually throw our way than Darwinism, which must view everything through the lens of chance and necessity and take a reductive approach to all signs of teleology in nature." Obviously when a bad pair of dimes causes you to see the world incorrectly, it takes longer to reach the truth.
So there.#: Posted by on 10/07 at 09:33 PM -
I'm going to have to learn to stop drinking beverages while reading this blog.
"Paleyontologist" was brilliant.
*still laughing*#: Posted by on 10/08 at 12:39 AM