Given that many dinosaurs had feathers, could T. rex have been even weirder — a giant carnivore with a downy coat? A new study in the journal Biology Letters crushes any tyrant chicken dreams: T. rex was covered in scales. Two tyrannosauroids, Dilong and Yutyrannus — relatives that predated T. rex by some 50 million years — were covered in feathers. “With all the hype about feathered theropods, it's easy to forget that actually most dinosaurs had scaly, reptilian-like skin,” Bell said. Tyrannosaur skin is rare, Bell said, in part because paleontologists historically favored smashing through skin to get to bones.

Source: Washington Post June 06, 2017 23:11 UTC