Ok, guys. This is seriously exciting.
I love birds. And I love dinosaurs. And the more we find out about how many birdlike traits dinosaurs had, the more I love both of them even more. Seriously – floofy dinosaurs. Or the thought that those things eating out of my trashbin and uttering their bloodcurdling cries of ‘CAW CAW!!” at 6 in the morning are actually highly-evolved black-feathered raptors. How is that not awesome??
HERE is the article in question. Bits of it have been re-posted elsewhere, but as is the case with many newspapers, they’ve taken out the interesting science bits. (Like the most important part – how they arrived at their data, and the mention that they’re still searching to see if dinosaurs feathers possibly had iridescence, which would imply that they also had rich color vision!!!) But this is the most complete version I’ve found, and is definitely worth a read. The fact that melanosomes survived being fossilized is just mind-boggling…
But, anyway. I’ll let the rest of you get back to speculating over what features the iPad will have (wings? anti-leak cores? the mind boggles at that name choice… But I digress.). I’ll be over there, geeking out over THIS news and doodling little red-tailed raptors.
Wolfgang Says:
Ya know, hearing you talk about crows as ‘highly-evolved black-feathered raptors” actually makes it less awesome to me. Then again, I consider crows target practice, where as popular culture paint raptors as a reason to be running for my life and firing wildly behind me. The best comparison to how those two mesh for me is a charging bear painted with red and white bulls-eyes.
koinosuke Says:
Just about every animal has better colour vision then mammals. Boy do we suck. Did you see the microraptor the four winged dinosaur? I would love to know what colour it was.
Architechnik Says:
Now Jurassic park would be more cuddly. I think they have now more reasons to replicate dinosaurs than ever before. There would be Cretaceous pet stores all over the place…
Oh, and here’s the Nature article that the other article refers to: http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/vaop/ncurrent/full/nature08740.html
Kim Says:
Haha! I love that you did a comic about this! I thought this was the big news story of yesterday as well. It is awesome cool that they were able to discover this. *still doing happy dance*
Aldarad Says:
“So if you have a white feather, it would not leave a fossil.”
Huh so a T Rex could , in theory been cover with white down, and we will never know?
Weird…
Gabriel Rotar Says:
SQUEEE dinosaurs are so cool and birds are awesome, if there were no superior mammals I bet birds would rule the world.
Birds way smart I mean check out their brain to body ratio and what they ca do with it… also birds are really really fluffy and warm(40 Celsius and above 🙂 )
BookWyrm Says:
Dinosaurs are so cool! And dinos with bright colors–super cool!! (Alas, I’m too old to SQUEEE. Oops, I just did.) 🙂
There’s a book you should check out: Cruisin’ the Fossil Freeway, by Kirk Johnson and Ray Troll. It covers their travels fossil hunting in the American West. Johnson explains the science very well and Troll is one trippy artist (remember the “Spawn Or Die” shirt?). I’m trying hard not to drool on the pages.
Bard Says:
Cuddly T-Rex. Now there’s a thought.
Ista Says:
Oh my god! That’s just awesome! I didn’t hear about it, so I’m glad you did a comic on it!
Avilan Says:
Personally I don’t see the difference between Dinosaurs and Birds. Birds are a kind of dinosaur.
…So when we look up at the sky this spring we can all rejoice because the dinosaurs are returning to the north once more.
Avilan Says:
Oh and about the iPad: I think it will bomb, because it is just wrong. Unless you are a Believer In All Things Mac I don’t really see a point in getting it:
It is too big to put in your pocket (the IPhone is basically as large as you can get and still make it fit in a jeans pocket) and it is too small to do serious work or gaming on it.
Basically, if I got one, I would need to drag my Iphone, my computer AND my Ipad with me everywhere.
Mindsend Says:
OMG I KNOW RIGHT?! It used to drive me nuts back when I was a preschooler that people kept telling me I was “wrong” drawing the T-Rex as leaning forwards like a Kangagroo in bright orange with black stripes like a tiger instead of upright with its tail dragging on the ground in browns or greens.
<3 and Dinosaurs are getting more and more learned about them then ever before, and its so exciting to see not only are they brightly colored, but have markings as well. I still remember laughing almost hysterically when I found out about the dinoskin they found on a naturally mummified dino that had spots on it.
PongoPygmaeus Says:
dino….droppings? droppings?