[Disgruntled Intern]

Many recent finds of well-preserved dromaeosaurids (raptors) from places like the Liaoning province in China are basically whole skeletons in rock slabs, and in many of them, including Microraptor, Mei Long, Sinosauropteryx and many small, carnivorous relatives like Caudipteryx, there is a ring of feather imprints surrounding the skeletons like a halo.

Now we only found the primary feather indents in the arm of Velociraptor after examining the bone carefully. If I had to guess, the only reason we haven't found similar structures, or these "feather halos" around the bones of species we'd known about for a long time, like Deinonychus or Utahraptor, is because we simply weren't using the same delicate techniques we use now. Another reason is that we just weren't looking for them. Feathers on dinosaurs is a fairly recent revelation in the field of paleontology, so perhaps with further examination and a more surgical excavation, we'd get a more definitive answer.

I need to mention that I don't think we've excavated enough of Utahraptor to even know if it was feathered or not; just a claw and perhaps a bone or two. I think you may have meant a different species, because I've never seen confirmation of that.

What I'm saying is this: paleontology is guess work. A lot of really educated guess work, and it's a safe bet to assume that since we've discovered so many dromaeosaurids with feathers, that most "raptor" dinosaurs were probably feathered, to a certain degree, factoring in variables like climate and evolutionary development and use of the feathers. Most animals on that branch of the evolutionary tree were also feathered (since not all feathers must be used for flight).

Since these primitive feathers were more like fur than contouring, complex feathers of modern birds, it's smart to imagine that, like mammals, the bigger the dinosaur got, the less feathers it may have had. Elephants have almost no fur, while felines have fur at different lengths, depending on their environment.

It's a really recent development in paleontology, so I expect we'll find out a lot more in the years to come.

Hopefully.

Species basal to these groups are known to have feathers, so unless they were secondarily lost, they would have had quite the plumage. As you can see above, the Deinonychosauria (Dromaeosaurids and Troodontids) fit within the Aviremigia, all of which had penneceous feathers. These are advanced feathers with a central shaft, vanes and flattened barbs, with barbules connecting the barbs. Essentially, modern feathers (flight feathers are an asymmetrical modification of this design).

It is reasonable to assume that other theropods outside of Aviremigia had feathers also, but of more primitive structure. Looser with no barbules, for example, or radial and downy.

Thanks for this.



In more pet related news, it looks like I'll be adopting/rescuing a Pit Bull puppy in a couple of weeks. I really want to name it Morgan Freeman.