Stunning feathered dinosaur fossil

Wpf Media-Live Photos 000 558 Custom New-Species-Feathered-Dinosaur-Hints-Widespread-Feathers 55896 744X417

This gorgeous fossil is a 150-million-year-old squirrel-tailed, feathered dinosaur, named Sciurumimus albersdoerferi. Oliver Rauhut of the Bavarian State Collections of Palaeontology and Geology says, "I was overwhelmed when I first saw it. Even apart from the preservation of feathers, this is certainly one of the most beautiful dinosaur fossils ever found." From National Geographic:

Previously, paleontologists have found feathers only on coelurosaurs—birdlike dinosaurs that evolved later than so-called megalosaurs such as Sciurumimus.
Because Sciurumimus is not closely related to coelurosaurs, the new fossil suggests feathered dinosaurs were the norm, not the exception, Rauhut said.
"Probably all dinosaurs were feathered," he added, "and we should say good bye to the familiar image of the overgrown lizards."

""Beautiful" Squirrel-Tail Dinosaur Fossil Upends Feather Theory"

David Pescovitz is Boing Boing's co-editor/managing partner. He's also a research director at Institute for the Future. On Instagram, he's @pesco.

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http://docpop.org/ DocPop

Birds are little dinosaurs.
- http://ok-cleek.com/blogs cleek
  
  … delicious little dinosaurs.
wildemar

Well, Jurassic Park can now hardly be called accurate anymore. Time for a Special Edition and get it fixed!
- kichigaijin
  
  Great, now I’m seeing the velociraptor scenes redone at the correct scale… and with turkey calls.
  - http://marjaerwin.livejournal.com/ Marja Erwin
    
    It’s been a long time since I read any of Crichton’s books, but weren’t they supposed to be Deinonychus antirrhopus instead of Velociraptor mongoliensis? About belly-high against average adult humans.
- benher
  
  Spoiler: the Velociraptors shoot first
sarahnocal

Hmm makes me wonder what other completely accepted scientific theories might be wrong?
Science is not always right!!!! Theories evolve too!
- http://twitter.com/beep54orama B E Pratt
  
  Science never, EVER, claims to be right. Just merely the best guess we’ve got now based on the evidence.
  - sarahnocal
    
    I agree, I know this about science. I am being facetious here.
    
    Therefore, the debate can never be over. Right?
    - http://www.facebook.com/evilknick Nick Altman
      
      What makes you think dinosaurs not having feathers was ever a “completely accepted scientific theory”. We’ve been finding feathers on dinosaurs for 30 years now, and it’s always been debated what they looked like.
- toyg
  
  Yeah, science has this bad habit of formulating theories based on facts, and then re-formulate them when more facts emerge. Total bunch of flip-floppers, dem scientists.
  
  The religious view is undoubtedly superior and more consistent: take a random book, then assume everything in it is literally true, discarding all “facts”. Should new “facts” emerge, who cares?
  - sarahnocal
    
    Therefore the debate can never be over. Right?
    - toyg
      
      It depends on the debate. There can be no debate between trolls and scientists.
      - sarahnocal
        
        Right. The debate is over when the name calling begins..
      - toyg
        
        I didn’t insult anyone, but I’m happy you know to which category you belong.
    - http://twitter.com/wilmcdaniel wilmcdaniel
      
      But religion supports its facts with the theories presented before it.
  - http://marjaerwin.livejournal.com/ Marja Erwin
    
    That’s not the religious view. That’s close to the religious fundamentalist view, except that they ignore the parts they don’t like and/or come up with metaphorical interpretations of the parts they don’t like.
    
    A lot of [self-described] Christian fundamentalists insist that everyone should be hetero, everyone should marry, and everyone who can bear children should have as many children as possible. A lot of [self-described] Christian fundamentalists also assert that everyone is either male or female and this always accords with the doctor’s guess at birth. They must need paradox-absorbing crumple zones if they ever read Matthew. or any of the gospels. or Acts.
    - toyg
      
      Yeah, I know, there are good religious people (I married one, for my sins) like there are bad religious people. I was just trolling the little troll.
    - JonS
      
      “paradox-absorbing crumple zones”
      
      I <3 this turn of phrase
- DavidLuce
  
  That’s the beauty of science!!
- http://twitter.com/wilmcdaniel wilmcdaniel
  
  Don’t tell that to my board of education here in Kansas.
- martykayzee
  
  Science is never “right.” It is always suspect. No one “believes” in science or had “faith” in it’s study. A theory is the best available explanation for a set of related facts. If you submit better facts, you may change the peer consensus.
  
  ps – The are no exclamation points in science.
http://twitter.com/beep54orama B E Pratt

That picture is so amazing, it doesn’t even look real…..
- http://www.facebook.com/evilknick Nick Altman
  
  Probably because people cut the fossils from the rock and spend thousands of hours picking away at the rock to reveal the fossil inside. You see beveled edges around the bones because they were careful to make it look good.
Mister44

Is there a better close up of the bushy tail?
- http://twitter.com/pmcarlton Pete Carlton
  
  Some can be seen in the publication’s supporting information, here:
  http://www.pnas.org/content/early/2012/06/25/1203238109/suppl/DCSupplemental
  (Not linked to in the original article for some reason)
  - Mister44
    
    Thanks for the link.
  - sql_yoda
    
    So awesome thanks for the link – at first I was looking at the pic above and didn’t see anything resembling feathers but you can clearly see filaments and what looks like spar remnants in the pics taken under UV light.
- Robert
  
  OK.
  
  http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_qXHZUmUcrYM/SbdQc2tZLUI/AAAAAAAAD0k/vrVsDV1nDRk/s400/furry_squirrelta%20il2.JPG
thehookandeye

The facial features/structure – the eye in particular – are especially breathtaking. What an image.
mrsoreto

I knew there had to be a reason Big Bird scared the shit out of me as a kid.. it’s a fucking T-Rex!
Graham Fawcett

That’s gorgeous! I’d love a high-quality wallpaper version, but I can’t find one on the NG story…
TimRowledge

That’s not a dinosaur, that’s a puppy!
- http://marjaerwin.livejournal.com/ Marja Erwin
  
  No, you can tell from checking the teeth, the temporal fenestrae, the antorbital fenestra, the sclerotic ring, the hips, the ankle joints, and counting the fingers and toes. Also from the feathers, which are so far uniquely dinosaurian. [/pedantic]
timquinn

Hello? Pixels! tiny solid sandstone pixels.
Vivian Brown

http://www.theonion.com/articles/paleontologists-weve-been-looking-at-dinosaurs-ups,7100/ Paleontologists: ‘We’ve Been Looking At Dinosaurs Upside Down’
darkjayson

I’m not sure that you can fit one image of dinosaurs after all they where around for a few hundred million years who says that in all that time they only looked one way, I think they might have existed in lots of different forms over time from the ones we imagine to the feathered ones as well.
benher

Running from giant chickens seems somehow less romantic than giant lizards… Just how close are reptiles and birds on the tree of life anyway?
sql_yoda

I can’t wait until we discover dinosaur fossils with the remnants of laser beams on their heads.