this post was submitted on 23 Apr 2025
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Mildly Interesting

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This is for strictly mildly interesting material. If it's too interesting, it doesn't belong. If it's not interesting, it doesn't belong.

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[–] [email protected] 66 points 1 week ago (2 children)

This is a little bit unfair to paleoartists. A lot of the drawings people are most familiar with came from a time when there was less evidence for feathers. They absolutely update drawings as more fossils are found that change the picture, but we don't always go and look at the newest art. Just how much feather cover specific dinosaurs would have had is still a bit unknown but it's unlikely they would have had anywhere near as much feather cover as modern birds.

[–] [email protected] 31 points 1 week ago (1 children)

I have to disagree with that last point. Dinosaurs lasted a LONG time, and while.early dinosaurs certainly had little feather coverage, such as stegosaurus, later dinosaurs, such as yutyrannus and therozinosaurus, were absolutely covered.

Now, there were not "feathers", but feather like structures that eventually evolved into feathers in their descendants

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 week ago (1 children)

What's a feather like structure look like?

[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Small, flaky scales that protruded out from the body

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 week ago

Sounds like reptiles to me. Something like a sort of cross between fish and snakes?

[–] [email protected] 25 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (1 children)

I love the art in Dinosaurs: New Visions of a Lost World. Such an amazing book!



(Sinosauropteryx, archeopteryx and anurognathus. And BTW the colours are accurate. We can find out now.)

[–] [email protected] 9 points 1 week ago (2 children)

Sorry but that last one is just so fucking goofy looking. If that thing came to attack me I would just die of laughter and it would then be able to eat me.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (2 children)

Why would it attack you? It was the size of a budgie. Really doubt a budgie would be able to eat you no matter how hard it would try.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 week ago

I mean, really depends on the time period. Bugs are a surprisingly bad frame of size reference depending on the time period. Tha little insect might actually be human sized ^^'

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 week ago

Who knows. Animals can behave strangely sometimes. I also missed the bug so I had no idea how big it would be.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 week ago

Sounds like a successful hunting tactic to me