Found it Leo! Proto Feathers

It's old an dirty and it's something I drew years ago, a proto feathered Coelophysis. With all the new feathered dinosaurs, all the things we think we know are basically tossed into chaos. We have small patches of skin for T. rex and Allosaurus, they show scales for that part of the body (only small sections of preserved skin, there might be feathers elsewere), we have a mostly scaled Carnotaurus. Feathered tyrannosaur ancestors... We have a hetrodontosaur species that shows feathers, completely unexpected, they are more closely related to the iguanadons and hardrosaurs... we have a psitticasuaurs with tail quills and scales... so what the heck are we supposed to put on these guys now, scales or feathers or proto feathers..? And with another recent find that shows that the feathers changed from one type of feather to another in some species as they matured... I'm at a loss. Do the feathers go all the way down to the beginning of the dinosaur family 'tree'? Questions and more questions. I'm left wondering if the scales on the backs of some hadrosaurs are actually scales or are hardened proto feathers like a rhino's horn (made of hairs actually.) Up is down and down is sideways.... my brain hurts. What we need are some large dinosaur find with skin and feathers or scales, like the little ones in Lioning.

I'm wondering if I'm going to have to start drawing 2 versions of every dinosaur, a scaled version and a feathered one. My hand is cramping just thinking of the extra work;)

Best,

Brett

I'm fairly sure the hadrosaur scales are actually scales, but you never know;)

Cymbospondylus

Done for Art Evolved. Just a quick pencil drawing and color job, nothing too fancy. There is a little dinosaur in the water about to become lunch for a much larger ichthysaur called Cymbospondylus from the late Triassic. I think these things got to around 30 feet.

Best,

Brett

Dilophosaurus a Spinosaur?

Years ago Gregory S. Paul put forth the idea that the Spinosaurs evolved from animals like Dilophosaurus. They do look a lot alike, but current thinking has the spinosaurs evolving from animals similar to Torvosaurus (I'm saying Torvosaurs since I have no idea what's going on with the megalosaurs right now.) But could the similar look be the result of convergent evolution? (animals evolving similar appearance because they preform the same function, like dolphins and icthyosaurs, or Thylacines and the dog) Were Dilophosaurs also fish eaters? I have no real idea but a current study that tests isotopes in teeth might be the answer. They finally published a study on the teeth of spinosaurs that shows they were more aquatic in there habitats than other theropods, or at least most other theropods.

So does the similar look of Dilophosaurs hint at a Spinosaur like life style? Most likely not, they appear to just be ramped up Coelophysids. But one never knows, maybe we'll find a Dilophosaur with fish in it's belly like the British Baryonyx:)

For more information on swimming Spinosaurs go here!

Best,

Brett

Coelophysis

I'm still torn on whether these animals had protofeathers or not...

Best,

Brett