One Man’s Stew
By Ed Lusch
Dinobirds

     The most universally accepted theory among scientists as to what led to the extinction of the dinosaurs is an asteroid explosion of enormous magnitude which fried, froze, starved and otherwise exterminated all the dinosaur species living on earth 65 million years ago.
     But paleontologists are now saying, hold on, wait a minute... all the dinosaur species were not killed off. One dino-representative survived and successfully adapted to almost every niche on the planet—the birds. And if your jaw hasn’t yet completely dropped open, that most terrifying off all the behemoths—Tyrannosaurus Rex, wore feathers!
     What paleontologists know about dinosaurs has diminished exponentially over the last 15 years. Science books up until the mid-’90s discussed the distribution and classification of dinosaurs but little else was known. Today’s textbooks will tell you what dinos ate, how they behaved, locomoted, hunted and scavenged; the life history of these mammoth creatures.
     But perhaps the most exciting theory (now proven fact) is that many dinosaur species had feathers, including T-Rex himself. The dinos did not use feathers for flight but for thermo-regulation (heat control) and later evolved into primitive, non-flying birds, which, of course, eventually took wing into flight.
     How did paleontologists discover that dinos, not birds, invented feathers? Because of oxygen-depleted sediments on lake bottoms, a thin layer of rock called paper shale formed about 135 million years ago. Paper shales are excellent preservers of soft tissues such as flowers, hair, scales, insect parts and feathers. Within this layer are fragments of dinosaur bone with traces of a thin-film of dark streaks, a body covering of unmistakably feathers, and, more specifically, T-Rex fossilized juveniles have been unearthed in the last five years that are surrounded by feathers, with some feather imprints still attached to the fossilized body.
     There are other defining characteristics linking dinosaurs to birds. Tyrannosaurs, for instance, exhibit many of these similarities and recent fossil discoveries bear this out; hollow bones, a wishbone, three primary toes, scaled legs and feet and, as mentioned earlier, the undeniable evidence of feathers.
     It is not known for certain why Tyrannosaur juveniles sported feathers but the hypothesis is the feathers were needed for insulating small bodies. A hatchling T-Rex weighed in at a meager three pounds. As they grew to adulthood, up to 13,000 pounds, the feathers were shed; large bodies hold more heat.
     Were birds flying around during the later stages of the dinosaurs? No, but their near-prototypes were. Why and how the dinobirds evolved insulating feathers into flight feathers constitutes a monumental debate among paleontologists. Did front legs become feathered appendages advantageous to balance and erratic locomotion for eluding predators? Then to long jumping and gliding culminating eventually in flight? Yes, definitely so, say some paleontologists. Not so, say others. But science does agree that the development of flapping, feathery forelimbs in dinosaurs set the evolutionary stage for birds.