Sta.sh
Theme
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this journal 
Total prizes reach 1000 
But of course there are always the rules......
Please please please fave the journal!
Make another journal about this giveaway and provide a link of that journal in the comments (this will help spread the word about this giveaway)
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Firstly, I'm still fond of the idea that primitive feathers are basal to Ornithodira in some way or another, perhaps evolving from dermal spines or something along those lines. But I'm starting to believe that, as wondrous as I find the idea of fuzzy ornitischians to be, extensive coats of feathers were really limited to coelurosaurs.
That's because, up until now, the only confirmed examples of something other than scales in ornitischians come from Psittacosaurus and Tianyulong. I'm sure these are homologous with each other and that primitive ornitichians had bristles as a basal condition, but I'm not so sure if these and coelurosaur feathers were really the same thing. What makes me doubt it is that, while most evidence so far seems to favor the idea that no big coelurosaur totally lost their feathers - the idea of feathered adult Tyrannosaurus being more accepted now than ever - the confirmed presence of extensive scaly hide in hadrosaurs, stegosaurs, ceratopsians and ankylosaurs just makes it more likely that the bristles of primitive ornitischians weren't the same thing. If they were, why would these derived forms loose it? I'm sure a cover or fuzz would be more advantageous to endothermic megafauna.
The thing is, I don't think the quills on Tianyulong and Psittacosaurus served a thermoregulative function. They could well be another experiment in integument, no doubt arising from the same genetic base as the feathers that later appeared in theropods and earlier in pterosaurs, but they were structurally different and probably used just for show and were much more prone to be lost. I just don't see why every form of derived ornitischian of which we have skin preserved would loose their fuzz if they were the same as theropod feathers - that would contradict everything that has being said about tyrannosaurs and therizinosaurs and moas retaining theirs.
In short, I love the idea of fluffy heterodontosaurids with fur-like feathers all over their bodies, but evolutionarily it doesn't make sense to be, because otherwise hadrosaurs should be as hairy as buffalos. What do you guys think?
Anyway, I think we could sort of use this as an explanation for a fuzzy hadrosaur. Since fossils showing any dermal coverings are relatively rare we may have found ones that just happened to have died in the summer. I was sort of thinking of playing with this idea for the All Yesterdays project, but I try to be scientifically sound and this very topic has been on my mind a lot lately.
Also, I'd love to see an entry from you!
And I am working on something! I posted that Therizinosaurus but I feel like it's just a generic flashy mating display. Working on something a little more brain based
While the details are still private, this is apparently set too change soon.
Well, Let say all primitive dinosaurs were all (almost) now covered in proto-feathers or fuzz (perhap).