A scaly hide

A new article came out recently showing amazing fossils of Tyrannosaurus Rex scaly skin that showed that there were parts of the T-Rex that were not covered with feathers. The article was then twisted by the media saying that T-Rex wasn't covered in feathers at all to the enjoyment of millions of T-Rex lovers, the legendary king of the dinosaurs was a huge scaly best... Sorry to all of you movie and thriller fans out there that just can't accept that these large bests had feathers. When T-Rex was first discovered in 1918, the general perception was that this animal had wrinkly scaly skin like that of a Komodo Dragon. Whelp.... Turns out they weren't too far off from the truth.

The new fossils showed four sections of the Rex's skin located on the abdomen, chest, pelvis, neck and tail, and all showing nothing but scales. If the animal did have any barbs or feathers, they would have been running down the back and sides of the animal and a relativity light amount of it. Scientists are saying that this new discovery doesn't rule out feathers on the Rex at all. It just proves that Tyrannosaurus Rex was not completely covered. Many flightless birds today like the Emu or the Cassowary have very little feather on their undersides, legs and neck.

That being said...The spots of the scales were mostly on the underbelly of the animal which could very well be featherless. It is most likely the Rex was still covered with feathers all along the top half of the animal. Dilong and Yutyrannus are close relatives of the T-Rex and fossil evidence shows that these animals were covered in feathers. It seems the larger the animal the less Feathers it might have...(unless you are Gigantoraptor) Then you are 26 feet long and 2.2 tons of fluffy feathery comedic gold.

Scientist believe it might have to do with the Animals temperature. “Big animals have trouble shedding excess heat, so being covered in feathers is not a good idea unless you live somewhere cold. Gorgosaurus, who lived in Alberta Canada around 75 million years ago, have been discovers with fossilized feathers. Its much colder in Alberta Canada then it is in the central United States, even 68 Million years ago.

I said it before in a previous topic, that I actually like the idea of these predators with feathers. I think it could have given them a really mean look. Now lets not forget that the vast veriety of the dinosaurs DID NOT HAVE FEATHERS! This trait was only reserved for a select few species.

I am now waiting to see if they can pull any color proteins from these scaly fossils to maybe shed some light on the actual color of these brutal animals. Below is an image of the actual T-Rex skin fossil.

Please feel free to leave a comment at the main page about this topic and whether or not you think the reason something like Gorgosaurus had a lot of feathers and T-Rex did not.

The bottom photo shows where the skin fossils were located on the Rex.