this post was submitted on 03 Mar 2026
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A giant chicken, truly terrifying.
Is it all the dinosaurs? Or just ones from specific eras that likely had feathers? Ill try to find ou5 myself later. But if anybody has a link to something akin to "feathered dinos for dummies" id love to check it out
From what i've seen it's basically 50/50 if any one species had a significant amount of feathers, but feathers do seem to have existed in the earliest dinosaur ancestor so it could maybe potentially show up in any species.
Then you can get more detailed and memorize which kinds of dinosaur had what kind of feather covering, like sauropods seem to at most have some quills and similar decorations, while dromaeosaurs (dakotaraptor, velociraptor, etc) were basically big murder birds with full on wings.
But of course even within clades there could be significant difference: T.rex seems to have been, uh, covered in straight up skin like a giant plucked chicken.. but at least some of its relatives were mostly covered in feathers.
All birds today are actually coelurosauria dinosaurs, a group of theropods (T-rex and raptor-shape dinosaurs) who are thought to have all had feathers for warmth, show, and/or gliding and flight. I know we have evidence that some other theropods had feathers (or at least hairy stuff), but I don't know whether the rest of them are lacking evidence of feathers or whether we have evidence against them having feathers.
I would also love such a book, preferably with lots of pictures.
Choose Goose is looking rough.
So without their feathers they look like they act?
I hope what you're implying is that swan feathers are a suit made to deceive humans from their obvious lizard people pet agenda, and that Big Feather needs to be held accountable. I've already booked guests for the podcast and have 17 articles in my substack,
I want to see a Jurassic Park movie where it's just geese and swans breaking out of captivity, and mildly annoying everyone.
Boy have I got the video game for you: Untitled Goose Game
You’ve never met a swan, have you?
“Mild annoyance” are the seagulls stealing your food.
(Yes, that swan dunked the seagull so it couldn’t fly away.)
Swans don’t steal food. You give it to them hoping they don’t murder you.
Weirdly, the notion that swans are particularly aggressive is one I learnt on the English-speaking part of the internet (so I instantly assume it's an USianism). Any references to swan behaviour that I can find in German talk about how they're associated with calm and serenity.
I've hung out with swans heaps in Australia and they've been almost entirely chill bros who will take food if offered but won't harass you for it. I wonder if different species have different demeanours, like how Canada geese are known for being especially aggressive.
That's because the Germans have enough sense and morals to leave them alone :)
i have to wonder if americans uh, get them confused with geese.. Because geese can absolutely have a tendency to actively harass you, while swans don't get close enough to interact with us in the first place.
Unless american swans are just suffering from lead poisoning like the general population?
In my experience it's more of a specifically British phobia. They have these sayings about swans breaking arms...
They are calm... by German standards.
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"Remain perfectly still, their vision is based on movement."
"Nah, fuck this bird." Kicks swan to the moon
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I fucking knew it, they’re Tyranids!!
That statement should start with "in the past". Recent depictions I've seen have them fully fleshed and feathered using up to date methods to create as accurate as possible models.
yeah, we have some absolutely amazing art these days. i particularly love this type of depiction of dromaeosaurs: Just MASSIVE birds with teeth instead of beaks and huge claws, they feel very.. cromulent..
We even have ways to figure out their colouring in some cases now! Like this sinosauropteryx:
That's cool. How did they figure out the colouring?
They found preserved melanosomes. It was previously thought these were the remains of bacteria.
You can find details here, but I highly recommend reading Dinosaurs: New Visions of a Lost World by Michael J. Benton, who was one of the ones doing the research. The book is very fun to read (he's got that typical dry british humour), does a great job of describing the history and current status of paleontology (which is apparently exploding in new discoveries right now) and it has absolutely lovely illustrations, including the one I linked above. And also this anurognathus that is the cutest thing ever:
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omg look at it, it's like a ferret with giant legs
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They'd look like dinosaurs.
They already look like dinosaurs.
They already are dinosaurs
That’s what I was gettin’ at, yeah
Those old-paleoartists were really unfettered.
🤣
crazy how there's billion dollar movies that have embarrassingly incorrect dinosaurs in them
While the look is based in old misconceptions of dinosaur biology, the Jurassic Park dinos lacking feathers actually works really well for the story. They were never meant to be real dinosaurs. They're just theme park attractions, so of course they look how the customers expect them to. Just like how most of them aren't even from the Jurassic period.
Yes that was the retcon explanation. The actual explanation is that they wanted to have Velociraptors in the movie and weren't really bothered about the fact that they aren't actually that big, there are species of raptor that are that large, but they didn't want to use their names because they were less well-known. Velociraptor was one of the few dinosaurs people knew. T-Rex didn't become famous until after Jurassic Park.
Movies often align to the popular perception if a thing rather than reality. Otherwise you're watching a documentary.
it's not like documentaries aren't plenty popular, that recent series on dinosaurs (walking with dinosaurs, i think?) with our homeboy David Attenborough was hyped as fuck, no cap, on god, etc
Walking with dinosaurs is like 20 years old it's not recent.
Dino DNA!
This is so outdated it's wrong.
Wet owl moment
New pokemon looks different
It's neck is tied into a fucking knot 😂
That said though, this birb slaps. Really high power and good typing for the early game
It's the go-to for S/V speedrunning for a reason! Low kick, double kick, and acrobatics turn it into a bulldozer XD
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