Wednesday, November 16, 2011

Lizard Feathers

This morning is a nicely dinosaur themed one, as I finally get a chance to dive into the newly released (and for me long anticipated Jurassic Park adventure game from Telltale Games). But more importantly is this new discovery back home in Alberta.
The paleontology world was shaken a number of years ago when fossilized remains of some therapods in the soft mud of ancient China, were discovered along with the minute impressions of feathers. Cretaceous therapods like raptors and perhaps even T. Rex himself weren't running around as stark as lizards, but instead were as gloriously plumed as a spring chicken. Recently scientists in the dinosaur capital of North America (Alberta, Canada), have found further proof of this feathered phenomena. Encapsulated in large chunks of amber (yea you can see the Jurassic Park connection now) are the actual feathers. And unlike images of protofeathers in the past few years, these new fossils may give us clues that dinosaurs were as diversely feathered as birds are today.
For more info on this really cool discovery and some great pictures and artist renderings, check out the full article over at Wired.

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