Re: Feathers for T-rex? Anyone got an answer?

["T. Michael Keesey" <mightyodinn@yahoo.com>]

--- Dora Smith <villandra@austin.rr.com> wrote:
> Well, that's the theory I've read, and it is logical.  But I think it's been
> offered to explain why the bigger coeluraurian dinosaurs don't show signs of
> feathers.   Atleast not yet.

The bigger ones don't show signs of feathers because they aren't preserved in
the proper kind of sediment. Mesozoic sites that preserve integument are
exceedingly rare: Solnhofen, Las Hoyas, Liaoning ... I can't think of any other
such sites off the top of my head, and I don't think there are too many more.

None of these sites has yielded very large animals. I believe the biggest so
far is _Beipiaosaurus inexpectus_, which is about 2m long (and feathered).


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