oldrover
Justified & Ancient
- Joined
- Oct 18, 2009
- Messages
- 4,057
Birds are not dinosaurs. In some ways they are related to crocodiles as well, which have a 4 chambered heart. Birds are likely an evolutionary offshoot of theropods. It's also been proven that many dinosaurs like T-Rex had scales, not feathers.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evolutionary_history_of_life
https://news.ucsc.edu/2014/12/crocodile-genomes.html
https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/t-rex-skin-was-not-covered-feathers-study-says-180963603/
https://nypost.com/2017/05/16/this-dinosaur-fossil-still-has-its-scales-and-guts/
https://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/12/27/dinosaur-feathers-species-scales-armor_n_4508734.html
You've misunderstood there Jim, you've said as much yourself when you say they're an 'offshoot of theropods', they are therapods. Google Archosaurs, it'll help clear it up.
Another thing I think you've been mislead by some of the links you've provided there, read the Smithsonian link again, it doesn't say what you seem to think it does, in any case the important question isn't whether any specific tyrannosaur species had feathers but whether feathers were present anywhere in their lineage.