Just Big Birds, Really

[poliphilo]

The dinosaur woman in Montana was cutting up ostriches. They're as close as you can get these days to a T Rex.

I've been trying to picture the T Rex with feathers. I don't think there's absolute proof it had them but the likelihood mounts. Those funny, stunted, little T Rex fore-arms- what if they were actually wings?  I can imagine them with plumage attached, for display.

The more we learn about dinosaurs  the less monstrous they seem. The dinosaur woman's mentor- top man in his field- said he thought of the T Rex as a sort of a vulture. 

Comments

[idahoswede.livejournal.com]

Vultures are actually quite beautiful in their way and very interesting. While we were in Kenya, we drove in amongst a group of possibly 100 and had the Jeep turned off and just watched them for awhile and it was fascinating. I grew to have a real affection for them really.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

I've never seen vultures- at least not in the wild. I'd love to. We've given them a bad name but every ecosystem needs its scavengers.

[butterscotch711.livejournal.com]

I heard recently that early humans' ecological niche may have been as bone marrow scavengers - say if some lions brought down a giraffe, we would wait for the lions to have their fill, and then wait for the hyenas to eat what was left of the meat, and then we would scurry out and break open the bones with our stone knives and eat the marrow.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

Mmmm, bone marrow.....

[artkouros.livejournal.com]

And there were a lot of different T-Rexy things, small and large, and probably with and without feathers.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

The T Rex has became iconic, but some of those other Rexy things were bigger.

I believe Jurassic Park IV is in production now- and there's a debate going on about feathering the dinos.