Did T.rex have feathers?

short answer yes long answer well let's just watch the rest of this video first of all I want to use length I wish it could be shorter but this is a complex topic with many points needed to be discussed to understand both all the evidence and to gain a scientific mindset when approaching this topic oh man yes this is it this is the video I know a ton of people have been hoping for it and others have been dreading my 100,000 subscriber video which I have been putting off for like a year now geez and let me get something straight with you all you guys I'm making this video not because I'm a sadistic wet towel that wants to ruin your childhood but because I want to dispel and clean up all the misinformation and just give you guys the truth and science and all this stuff if you haven't noticed and so my other videos I claim to love that they're dinosaurs and all that and I just want you guys to understand that this is just an over exaggeration of my character sure I think feathered dinosaurs are very cool but going into this video I will always value accuracy in evidence above all else in my videos I will not be biased towards the subject whatsoever in the end it really doesn't matter what you or I think of what t-rex is skin coverings were like and then all that matters is the evidence and accuracy and that's what this videos main primal purpose is to present unbiased evidence and truth not to discuss if t-rex looks good with feathers okay now that we got that out of the way let's proceed alright the integument or skin covering almost all fossil organisms has been a mystery ever since the first bones were dug up and in particular the integument of large dinosaurs is certainly a hot topic in pop culture and media for some reason this animal in particular an annoying phenomena has appeared and it's people being stubborn with t-rex of skin coverings based on the scientific evidence another area of paleontological discussions will you find more misinformation myths and bias then in the integument of t-rex we must be cautious that's right obi-wan Kenobi holy [ __ ] so this video will exist to clean up this area of science by presenting all the latest evidence accurate information and scientific opinion on the subject once again I want to thank Nick and Tom from saurian two really big peléan air that have really accumulated a bunch of this evidence and really helped me with the research in this video fYI this video couldn't exist without their help please go and support the awesome video game saurian and their dev team they were probably the most helpful and nicest guys I know I also want to personally thank the devianart user paleo for creating and allowing me to use these awesome silhouettes of various theropods make sure you check out his deviantART page link in the description all you guys are awesome already this video we'll talk about copious amounts of studies fossils and information and therefore will be broken up into bits I will first discuss the types of skin coverings exhibited and dinosaurs then talk about the basics of pilo genetics and ancestral traits the actual evidence disprove popular myths and then give you guys an accurate consensus on the subject solely based on the evidence and scientific opinion finally all sources can be found in the description and I will advise all of you to check out the evidence for yourself and not just take my word for it ok we got a lot to talk about so let's just get straight to it now before we get into the direct evidence on t-rex and its relatives let's just talk about what type of skin coverings dinosaurs had so that we can get a good understanding of what we are looking for this part will be a more revised version of my which dinosaurs had feathers video all dinosaurs including birds had and still have various amounts of skin coverings but when we get down to it they can be broken down into three main parts scales feathers and bare skin yes birds have scales also known as scoots or reticula these scales are often present in the foot or toe regions and are indeed homologous to the skills exhibited in extinct dinosaurs it is also important to note that feathers are actually scales themselves just a highly diverged type crocodilian scales in dinosaur feathers and even pterosaur pigna fibers hair like filaments exhibit into pterosaurs all evolved from the same common skin covering now it is also important to note that there is a difference between arcus or scales and something like lizard scales it was once thought that feathers and scales are made up of two distinct forms of keratin a protein responsible for the development of all skin coverings from hair to horns to scales and that each type of keratin was exclusive to each skin structure feathers and scales however in 2006 a study discovered the presence of feather keratin and early stages of the development of American alligator scales this proved that the keratin used to develop feathers is present in early stages of crocodilians this form of keratin is not exhibited in mature forms these embryonic feathers seen in alligators one of the closest living relatives to dinosaurs not only proved the common close ancestry of crocodilians and dinosaurs but also shows us that dinosaur scales were much different than lizards scales and were more like feathers also this study basically proved that feathers were not only ancestral to dinosaurs but even further back in Arcis Oriya fair skin exist under feathers and scales this is why lizards and birds with skin conditions that caused the lack of development of these proteins will look like naked mole-rats same thing when Birds molt and lose their feathers such as vultures or ostriches when these organisms lose their feathers or scales neither scales nor feathers exist under them only bear scale as skin bear skin will often have attachment points four feathers and scales a popular myth I've come across is the idea that all three of these are mutually exclusive ie scales can exist alongside feathers feathers cannot exist alongside scales fair skin can not exist alongside scales etc this is actually very untrue in reality all three can exist simultaneously on various parts of the same organism all modern birds have feathers scales and bear scale as skin areas just look at the ostrich vulture eagle and basically all of their birds there are examples of the coexistence of feathers with the other skin coverings and fossil dinosaurs as well Java Reiter kolinda dromaeosaurus thumb Imus in 2015 and Conclave inator in reality basically all modern birds have feathered sections scale sections and scale of skin such as the ostrich feathers and scales for existence can exist between each others such as the case with draw Vader and some owls freaking owls again how many times am I going to bring one important thing to know when a bird molt's or in other words loses its feathers scales won't replace them because simply put feathers our scales so when people say baby t-rexes had feathers but adults are somehow fully scale any because the feathers bolt that is impossible and untrue scales cannot exist under feathers only next to them that is exactly why chickens when they lose their feathers don't look like lizards they just have naked skin underneath them so in other words feather scales and naked skin can all coexist on the same organism but feathers and scales cannot exist under one another only bare skin can exist under feathers and scales feathers and scales cannot exist under one another but they can exist between and next to each other whoo that was a mouthful now let's break down feathers even further there are multiple types of feathers in all dinosaurs and it can get really confusing but there is hope they can be separated into stages this will be following the prom model in 1999 stage 1 feathers such as those found in Baikal source are unbranched cylinders that can form tube like for lack of a better word quills these feathers are hollow and would be kind of hard for us to fit into our modern definition of feather stage 2 feathers are what we'd like to call downy feathers and consist of mini filaments extending from a single base they would appear a little bit like dandelion heads stage three feathers have a central shaft with barb and but lack the barbules and hook 'let's that give more advanced feathers they're sold aerodynamic shape this type of feather can be seen today on the modern ratites emus and ostriches and elephant birds etc these types of feathers would look a bit like pine needle tree branches stage four and five feathers are where the more advanced feathers come in having a central shaft with barbules and hook 'lets such as punishes feathers these type of feathers are seen in Manor rafters such as birds and Raptors and are more aerodynamic and well that's about it there are more specific types of these feathers that can be broken down into further groups but I think you guys understand the basics of dinosaur integument let's move on to our next section now here I'll explain the basics of biology and paleontology to the people who don't know it an ancestral trait in lamest urns is a trait originally present in the ancestor of a group feathers are an in sexual trait to all dinosaurs in the same wafer is ancestral to all mammals : dodo Maius in 2014 has confirmed this the important thing to note here is that in sexual traits stay with its members for tens of millions of years and almost are never entirely lost even when they serve no purpose especially skin coverings let's give an excellent example may my only infer in cetaceans as said before hair is an ancestral trait covering to all mammals in the same way feathers aren't sister'll to all dinosaurs cetaceans also known as all whales and dolphins broke off from the common ancestor with the furry hair covered land mammals fifty five million years ago just ten million years less than how long it's been since the Mesozoic yet even after all that time after all that evolution here in cessful trait to all mammals has stayed with them yes believe it or not all cetaceans just like all mammals possess hair dolphins for example are born with a few stray hairs poking out of their facial region like a mustache soon after birth these hairs will fall out and all you will be able to see our hair follicles which are tiny pits where the hair used to grow out of larger whales such as the humpback on the other hand have a hair that stays with them for their entire lives humpback whales have distinct bumps on their lower and upper jaw from which tiny hairs protrude these hairs actually help humpback whales to sense things in their environment now this example doesn't entirely apply to t-rex and other dinosaurs t-rex is no whereas diverged as dolphins and whales dolphins and whales are rather extreme case and feathers in here aren't exactly that similar in function structure etc it has even been suggested that the scales in modern-day birds are actually feathers that reverted back to being scales but this was just to show you how ancestral traits work and just to show you how ancestral traits will stay within the organism ancestral traits such as skin coverings are very deeply engraved in its members and you need evidence to say that a member didn't have them even after all this progression 55 million years worth of it their ancestral skin covering has stayed with them and it's been well over 80 million years for all birds and guess what not one of them has completely lost their ancestral feathers so when somebody tells you t-rex lost its ancestral skin covering the feathers entirely in less than ten million years from its common feathered ancestor just remember cetaceans and birds have retained their ancestral skin covering over five times that long an cetaceans did in conditions where it's almost entirely useless from what mammals birds and lizards and many other animals tell us more often than not a descendant will possess the same skin covering as its ancestor it is extremely unlikely for an organism to completely abandon sin sexual skin covering in such a short amount of time and evolution and that brings me to my next important thing to talk about in this section explaining philo genetics phylogenetic sizz the single most important thing in all paleontology fellow genetics is best put as when there is insufficient evidence to directly know than traits of an organism we look at the organisms closest relatives for answers when we are lacking on information on a particular species we use its relatives to fill in the places this process is known as phylogenetic bracketing and I think it's best put by my colleague Stephen from your dinosaurs are wrong link in the description so in phylogenetics and science in general when we don't have the direct evidence of skin coverings of t-rex we use phylogenetic bracketing by looking to its relatives and what they tell us is the most logical scientific answer until we have direct evidence to say otherwise this concept is extremely important one to comprehend in science always followed what the direct evidence from close relatives gives us above all else so if T Rexes ancestors tell us it had feathers that means t-rex had feathers until we have direct evidence to tell us otherwise simple as that the method of phylogenetic is how paleontology is always functioned just because the Dakota Raptor specimens lacked a head doesn't mean it didn't have one we use follow genetics to tell us how it look and until further evidence that is how it looked science does not function like this because no feathers were found it didn't have feathers in science we always take the most likely and logical conclusion above the complex and illogical ones we use relatives to give us the most reasonable answer and until we find evidence otherwise that is the answer so even if t-rex doesn't have direct evidence it was feathered that doesn't mean it didn't have them using fallow genetics we can come to the most logical conclusion based on the evidence at hand and that is our next section so in this section and the rest of the video we'll keep in mind these concepts to follow genetics and ancestral traits they will be crucial into yielding the most scientific and logical answer okay then now let's get down to the evidence here we will discuss the direct evidence of what skin covering t-rex and its relatives had in reality we know very little about theropod skin coverings we simply lack a large amount of skin impressions from various members of theropod ah much unlike ornithopod ax and sauropods take for instance the vac we have absolutely no idea what skin covering Spinosaurus had at all sure we have a large amount of evidence of skin coverings from silo Soria but outside that theropods are a bit of an unknown nevertheless we have a sizable amount of fossils preserving skin impressions it should be also noted that several these impressions haven't been photographed haven't been published and are only known from interviews in a few books t-rex let's start out with all the direct evidence of integument preservation and just t-rex basically everything we know about t-rex skin covering of a be scaly feathered or just plain old bear skin comes from phylogenetics of relatives of t-rex in reality we know very very very very little about the skin covering of t-rex in particular and aside from foot impressions which were scaly and ostrich like a common trait among all dinosaurs even birds all we do know of the actual body of t-rex comes from one individual wyrex one of the smallest of all of them and from that one individual all that was found of its skin covering was a small patch of scaly bumps from the underside of the tail region that is smaller than a coin yep that's all we know I should add this skin patch remains unpublished during the writing to the script and I believe only two or three images exist of this patch online the bumps themselves are one to two millimeters wide and are described as very small Paul Serrano mentions that he has the specimen in his lab and that it lacks true sales and suggests that this area could have boar feathers in life it is interesting also to note how some of these scales look compared to the reticula or bird scales on the legs of an emu let me remind you this skin patch is smaller than a coin on an animal that it was 40 feet long not only does this tell us very little about the rest of the organism but it's not at all uncuff Danis ores to have scales on this section of the body Java Rader clinda dramatis and concrete veneer have feathered areas yet scaly tails and feet is actually quite common to find this area of the body to be featherless in theropods various theropods possessing scaly tails and scaly feet have been discovered yet still possessing feathered midsections arms necks and other parts of the body the underside of the tail is a known area for wear scales are normally present in dinosaurs and the evidence of scales on t-rex is not at all surprising and definitely doesn't tell us much about the rest of the body at all both the feet in tail are known scaly regions in many dinosaurs that still possess feathered bodies to base the rest of the organism off this tiny small sections is like saying this animal was entirely scaly just on foot impressions again an extreme case to just prove my point or just look at the featherless sections of an ostrich there is also another claim that another skin impression of t-rex exists an undescribed palm sized patch round with a rib showing bird-like naked skin like into a plucked chicken or elephant hide again this section may suggest t-rex was similar to an ostrich possessing feathers in this area as a juvenile and then molting them revealing a featherless skin patch ostriches for instance have large sections of this on their bodies and based on this alone one could think that the entire animal was scaly like this but nope so looking at all the direct evidence alone there isn't a lot to go on all we know about t-rex is that it had scaly feet and a scaling underside of the tail which basically tells us what we already knew Rex possibly also had feathers on its rib and underside of the tail which was later lost revealing only bare skin somewhere to modern ostrich it should also be added that these scale impressions from the tail section could have had feathers between them in life as proposed by serrano similar to related feather dinos so to put things straight the direct evidence of t-rex at the time of this video's publishing is unclear we really need other relatives to get an idea because we really have very little based on Rex alone moving on to other Tyrannosaurus most other tyrannosaurs don't help us much because simply put nothing has preserved conditions are right for preservations especially feathers and is incredibly rare it only happens in select places pterosaurs is probably the closest of these relatives and size and relativity to Rex skin impressions showing reticula a footprint was assigned to Tarbosaurus and a small patch of dome to be' khals on the specimen - damage to know the locality of the impression also exists the most interesting thing about thar bow is an undescribed naked skin from a badly withered skull formed a I quote waddle or bag of skin under the throat this possibly suggests star bow and possibly other related to Ranna saw possessed a throat pouch of skin similar to that of modern birds very interesting indeed so Targo based on evidence alone possibly had a bag like skin organ under its neck scales on its feet and possibly scales or scale with skin elsewhere again like t-rex and several other theropods there isn't much to go on here moving on to another large Tyrannosaur Gorgosaurus an impression from an unknown area on the body possessed I quote smooth naked skin lacking the skills on other dinosaurs and is described as similar to featherless skin found in large modern birds such as ostriches interesting an impression has also been described from the tail with I quote small rounded or hexagonal scales so from gorgosaur's we know it had skilless naked skin possibly similar toonastra jizz and a scaly tail see a common theme here albertasaurus also had a scale of skin area in the tail region of its body as well as skin impressions currently under study these skin impressions are possibly similar to the skin impressions of despot a source Daspletosaurus has an impression roughly the size of a Canadian dollar coin found on a large specimen the impressions show reticula or scales described as remarkably similar to those of Tarbosaurus where on the body they were found is not mentioned d long a small primitive Tyrannosaur possessed simple stage 2 branching feathers on at least the tail section both dorsal and ventral and the lower jaw and finally we get to you Tyrannis a massive 30 foot long Tyrannosaur from china which possessed basically a full body covering of feathers feathers are found on the back of the neck along the posterior part of the tail near the hips a fragment that's what's probably the humerus and feathers on the metatarsals so it's likely feathers extended at least as far as the ankle joint yes even its feet were feathered maybe even the toes based on this distribution it's pretty safe to assume that the feathers covered pretty much the entire body the feathers are shaggy Rettig like very long with the main body feathers averaging 15 centimetres in length those on the arm are 16 centimeters in length and those on the neck are over 20 centimeters in length meaning it's feathers were super long and Shaggy and and would make the whole animal look relatively fluffy looking these feathers were even extended to at least the dinosaurs feet the published scientific paper is rather vague these feathers are stage 2 and stage 3 feathers another Lord Tyranus oeid from Lao Aang possibly another you Tyrannis has stage 1 feathers on the tail region therefore you Tyrannis had a mixed of quill like stage 1 feathers with typical protofeathers filaments so it had a mix between stage 1 stage 2 and stage 3 the feathers were found on multiple specimens varying in age in size from juvenile to sub adult to adult the largest you Tyrannis was about the size of jane a sub adult t-rex you Tyrannis is currently the closest related organism with direct preservation of feathers to t-rex and several other large Tyrannosaurus I might be leaving out a few small unpublished skin impressions with very little data about them but this is basically all we have so far with direct evidence of skin coverings and tyrannosaurs still very little all skin impressions are preserved in areas known to be scaly or bare skinned and other dinosaurs even feathered ones such as the tail and hind limbs really these tiny fragments don't tell puss to determine the rest of the bodies of these large Tyrannosaurus I do find it rather strange we are almost always lacking in skin impressions from the mid sections arms and back and other normally feathered sections of the bodies of areas Taranis ORS only the regions known to be scaly are preserved almost as if there's something not preserving due to requiring special conditions I'm just saying the thing is we really don't have much evidence to suggest Tyrannosaurus were extensively scaly all we have are super small impressions from areas known to be scaling we actually have more evidence to say they were feathered just based on extensive feathered preservations on you Tyrannis and Ilan well what I'm saying is we still need to look at other more distant related groups to get idea now moving on to the Tyrannosaurus closest relatives comes a go Nathan's copies have multiple direct evidence of feathers and the entire group was undeniably feathered draw ater a copy possessed scaly skin on sections of its hips and hind limbs as well as parts of the tail it also possessed scales on its tail and and feathers at least on the top of the tail these feathers exist between the scales Sinosauropteryx was extensively feathered with stage 2 downy feathers basically that covered the entire body even the tail the fossil of this guy speaks for itself and there's other examples of feathers and coffees which further proves that they are all feathered it with scaly regions and skin regions we also multiple examples of feathered evidences and oneth the - ores such as ornithol Imus we also have evidence of a naked skin throat pouch in Pelican - possibly similar to that of tar bow one of the - 2015 told us they basically were feathered similar to an ostrich naked skin on the legs and underside of the tail and basically everywhere else being feathered and from there we go to the many Raptors which all were undeniably feathered with stage 4 and stage 5 feathers along with the previous stages there is Ana sorceress also possess similar feathered coverage on the arms neck tail and upper torso no feathers on the head the group was undeniably feathered Oviraptors and dromaeosaurus really I don't need to talk about the evidence in these guys they're quite notorious along with modern Birds so all t-rex has relatives to the right where feathered what about the left further back in the family tree well let's find out outside a settler Soria is a bit of an unknown with very few fossilization z-- I think the only known theropods with skin impressions are very few and far between so let's just list them further back the closest primitive relative with fossilization of its skin covering two tyrannosaurs is scurry you - its specimens preserved feathers at the base of the tail and a small patch of skin seen as yellow under ultraviolet light here currently it is unclear on what group is close as related to this guy but either way it is more primitive than all tyrannosaurs possibly closer related to Megalosaurus and Spinosaurus yet still possess feathers screw you - regardless of its placement proves that feathers existed before Tyrannosaurus even split further providing proof feathers are more Bassel and primitive trait than once thought Conclave inator is a karna sword the same group that includes Allosaurus its fossil preserved scaly hind limbs and a scaly tail the arms of this guy possessed quill knobs con Cueva Nader most likely had feathers on its arms meaning once again feathers existed further back and lastly my trump card no not you Kalinda to emmaus yep an honest gay and dinosaur which is way far removed from t-rex yet possessed stage two feathers this discovery alone proved that feathers were ancestral to all dinosaurs and feathers are possibly ancestral trait to both dinosaurs and pterosaurs both who and the presence of proteins used to create feathers and embryonic crocodilian suggest feathers could have existed way far back I know this is getting complicated so all you need to know is that feathers are found both before Tyrannosaurus split and after they split as well as a few tyrannosaurs themselves having direct evidence they possess feathers so therefore using phylogenetic bracketing we can easily come to the conclusion t-rex and all Tyrannosaurus until direct evidence tells us otherwise we're indeed feathered at some point in their lives the only tiny evidence of scales and bare skin exists in areas known to be scaling other dinosaurs such as scaly tails and legs and the lack thereof evidence of skin impressions from known feathered areas on the bodies of other dinosaurs absent in Tyrannosaurus also makes me a bit skeptical of to just jump to the conclusion that the whole tyrannosaurs we're featherless and the fact we have way more evidence from close relatives to sport they were indeed feathered than entirely scaly so sure we have no direct evidence t-rex head feathers but the thing is we got zero evidence to disprove t-rex head feathers either if we just look at all the evidence of skin coverings and just lay them out on the dinosaur family tree and then follow phylogenetic bracketing we can easily come to this inference so yes t-rex had feathers until direct evidence says otherwise and because most of what we know about t-rex are unknowns with zero evidence for the time being science has to fill in this area with the most logical assumption based on the current information the most logical assumption based on the phylogenetic is that t-rex did indeed possess feathers we have zero evidence to suggest in in the little evidence we have tends to lean towards this conclusion not even mentioning the entire family tree of close relatives and ancestors with the direct evidence they were feathered we have way more evidence to support feathers than to support randomly entirely scaly Rex all evidence sides with all Tyrannosaurus possessing feather as opposed to lacking them so I guess from here this video is in a discussion on if t-rex had possessed feathers but more on what type did it possess and where the type of feathers most likely exhibited in altar anise or such as Rex and Tarbosaurus would be based on the placement of tyrannosaurs on the tree from their close relatives stage 2 and stage 3 feathers once again stage 2 feathers are what we commonly called down feathers and consists of many filaments extending from a single base to a ch3 feathers have a central shaft with Barb's but lack the barbules and hook lids this type of feather can be seen today on the ratites t-rex would possess feathers similar to that of an ostrich cassowary emu kiwi etc which all possess stage 3 feathers probably the closest to that of tyrannosaurs where they would be placed on the body t-rex probably had similar skin coverings to an ostrich having all feathered skaila skinned and scaled regions we can infer from skin impressions that Tyrannosaurus did not have feathers on its tail or feet as we do not have any preserved feathers on this animal so far we do not yet know to what extent they existed on the rest of the body it could have been anything from almost none only exhibiting juveniles that fell off at a certain age leaving naked scale of skin to an almost completely covering of the torso and limbs with only the feet and tail bear so based solely on phylogenetics the current accurate skin covering of an adult t-rex is between almost entirely naked covered in scale is bare skin too almost entirely feathered with the only featherless regions being the tail and feet both are equally accurate based on all the current evidence we know and everything between these two limits is also accurate until more data is given but know this you can most likely kiss your fully scaly t-rex goodbye because regardless t-rex and other large dinosaurs definitely possessed feathers at one point in their lives and due to this even if they lost these feathers when reaching maturity this would leave scaleless bear skin not scales also although both extremes are equally accurate based on most other dinosaur species is most likely to and most possible that t-rex had a balance between the two extremes possessing a feathered midsection arms back and neck and head and possessed a naked underside naked and scaly legs and a scaly tail just based on close relatives such as ornithol - which lived in the same environment this is the most likely and most plausible reconstruction as multiple dinosaur species have a similar layout I personally believe the most plausible layout is t-rex having a skin covering layout similar to an ostrich ornithomimus having a considerable amount of feathers but still every featherless skin sections on its legs and underside to radiates heat I know it looks bizarre I'd say following a similar feather layout to an ostrich and related dinosaurs is pretty safe bet and in my opinion the most realistic approach based on the evidence at hand so for the time being this is accurate and this is accurate here's just a few possible skin covering layouts on t-rex the awesome and great paleo artist James gurney actually created a few great illustrations for sign like American depicting various trynna sores with feathers so cool but before you start spreading the news or yell at me at how a feathered t-rex is impossible let me clear up a bunch of myths and misconceptions center around t-rex and its feathers myth number one t-rex is too big for feathers you won't believe how many times I've heard this myth and it's entirely baseless there have been no publications on the body size limit for feathered animals and considering we have modern dinosaurs like epithets which were the size of rhinos and hippos and had a large amount of feathers no problem yeah that statement really doesn't work number two too hot so hot this myth is often found alongside myth number one as many people claim feathers would be too hot for a large Tyrannosaur do to them trapping heat and t-rex environment being too hot and humid for feathers again this statement shows a lack of knowledge on the function of feathers habitat of t-rex and anatomy of a dinosaur exhibit a Hell Creek t-rex's environment had a mean annual temperature of 7 to 11 degrees Celsius or 44 to 52 degrees Fahrenheit which is neither particularly warm nor warmer than the 10 degrees Celsius of the yangzi know where the giant feathered you Taranis lived Exhibit B feathers do much more than just trap heat a large amount of feathers actually thermo regulates the dinosaur better than fur on mammals keep in mind t-rex possess stage 3 feathers stage 3 feathers are often found in terrestrial birds living in extremely arid and hot environments much hotter than T Rex's own such as ostriches and emus and these dinosaurs possess a large amount of them yet still survive well that is because feathers particularly the type seen in Tyrannosaurus actually do an amazing job of thermo regulation or the shedding of heat this paper compares the plumage of a emus to the fur coat of a red kangaroo living in the same very hot environment and found that the Emo's denser darker feather covering was superior to the Kangaroos coat in reflecting heat emus were active in the heat of the day while kangaroos sought shade denser feathers actually does a better job of reflecting heat than less feathers unlike hair or fur that is why emus ostriches cassowaries other large terrestrial birds that live in extremely hot narrowed environment have such a large amount of feathers because they actually operate the hair and feathers are not the same thing ostriches emus cassowaries Roadrunners all live in environments more arid and hotter than T Rexes and their feathers actually help them survive by shedding and reflecting heat do I even need to bring up the elephant bird which were once again dinosaurs the size of hippos and lived on the scorching island of Madagascar much hotter than hell Creek yet we're almost completely feathered I don't think I do it also should be strongly note that andrew cow calculated that a 6-ton Tyrannosaur would generate around the same amount of heat as a one-ton mammal while having five times the surface area of a two-ton elephant this is also without taking into account the dinosaurs air sacs which it would allow far more rapid shedding of excess heat then is possible for a comparable size mammal the respiratory systems of dinosaurs is unique and allows heat to be shed also through the lungs which would further aid in thermoregulation the recent t-rex autopsy documentary has a wonderful clip explaining the dinosaur respiratory system feathers would definitely not be too hot for t-rex that this would actually aid in regulating heat and cool off the animal myth 3 yeah but elephants it's important to stress how bad of a comparison elephants and other large bodied mammals are to large dinosaurs such as t-rex so often I hear people comparing the two as if they were similar at all the most they are common is in size I often see many people using elephants superficial lack of hair this is just the t-rex and other large dinosaurs would have overheated if they were covered in feathers this is a poor analogy to make because elephants are quite area and utilize their hair to keep cool and they're hot much more so than the calculated for Hell Creek environments again feathers and hair have very different thermal regulatory properties studies between the thermo regulatory properties of Kangaroo Nemo's living and similar environments yield that the large amount of state 3 feathers Cina Nemo's actually do a better job reflecting the heat than fur of kangaroos feathers do a better job reflecting heat than mammalian fur elephants are also semi aquatic animals yep unlike t-rex they spend extended periods of their time in the water and their ancestors are believed to be semi aquatic resulting in the reduction of hair t-rex on the other hand was far from semi aquatic and mostly probably the best reason why we shouldn't use elephants as a comparison to t-rex while her before such as elephants must utilize fermentation which creates heat to digest plant material carnivores like t-rex would not herbivores generate more heat than carnivores that's just a fact using them as a comparison to t-rex is a very poor one we should really use something like an elephant bird or more large terrestrial birds like an emu ostrich cassowary or even just a large predatory mammal definitely not elephants or rhinos or hippos babies only and probably the most famous myth I've seen the baseless statement that only baby Rex's had feathers and all these feathers molted although not impossible nor inaccurate the statement is entirely baseless and not supported by any evidence whatsoever the important thing to note here is all feathers which isn't impossible but it's very unlikely it is highly probable t-rex growth was similar to an ostrich having a large amount of plumage as a juvenile and then molted sections when they grew up but the thing is no living dinosaur completely loses all its plumage next hunch is that the source of this meme is in the documentary t-rex walks again this is Mark Noel Hussein we would predict based on information available at the time not a peer-reviewed paper you Terrenas essentially strongly argues against the assumption that feathers would be lost in an animal the size of Jane a sub-adult t-rex for example you Tyrannis environment wasn't much different than t-rexes in temperature so really there isn't a reason to believe it would be much different so baby feathered t-rex's that mult all their feathers at an early stage only leaving naked ostrich like skin to maturity isn't supported by any evidence and actually goes against what you Terence tells us I do find it likely they lost some when they reach maturity leaving naked skin parts that helped radiate heat again similar to an ostrich but I doubt they lost to all of them because a we have zero evidence to support that in be no living dinosaur loses all its plumage finale so in conclusion the final consensus on F t-rex was feathered is yes simply based on phylogenetic bracketing the extent to which it was feathered is a mystery it could have been feathered almost completely or it could have been close to featherless we know sections like the tail and feet were indeed scaly as is the case to most sors t-rex would possess stage 2 and stage 3 feathers and no it wasn't too big it wasn't too hot and it wasn't only for babies so inaccurate t-rex is no longer fully scaling but somewhere between these two extremes naked and featherless to an almost entirely feathered guy most likely based on related species it was feathered on its midsections arms neck and back scaly on its tail and probably had naked legs with scaly feet the saurian teams t-rex is an excellent example finding a middle ground between the two limits this is accurate this is accurate and this is accurate so get out there and tell me what you think t-rex look like between these two extremes thanks for watching hello you guys this is Trey again I don't want to make this video too long so I'll keep this short here I just want to thank all you guys for watching my videos submitting fan art and subscribing I can't tell you how grateful I am and I just want to personally thank all of you for helping me on my journey as a youtuber it has just made me so happy and I just can't tell you how much this YouTube has changed me as a person expect many more memories in the future and just thank you for your love see ya next time

Channel: TREY the Explainer

Views: 496,088

Rating: 4.8598847 out of 5

Keywords: Dinosaur, Dinosaurs, Tyrannosaurus rex, T.rex, feathers, Scales

Id: uM5JN__15-g

Length: 37min 23sec (2243 seconds)

Published: Sat Mar 12 2016

Reddit Comments

[u/CribbageLeft]

Awesome video, thanks for posting!

[u/bigspring]

Can confirm: T.Rex had feathers.