comics Archive

From the In Case You Missed It Files – Jurassic Edition come new photos last week revealing “amber preserved feathers that provide a new image of what dinosaurs looked like.”

From MSN: "This photo provided by the journal Science shows an overview of 16 clumped feather barbs in Canadian Late Cretaceous amber specimen TMP. In science fiction, amber preserved DNA that allowed rebirth of dinosaurs in Jurassic Park. In real life, amber-preserved feathers provide a new image of what dinosaurs looked like."

 
Scientists have long suspected — strongly suspected — well, okay, they more or less “knew” — that the popular portrayal in art and media of many dinosaurs as leathery alligator-type lizards was aesthetically questionable at best. But now,

“instead of scaly animals portrayed as usually drab creatures, we have solid evidence for a fluffy colored past,” reports Mark A. Norell of the American Museum of Natural History in New York.

First among our revisions should that of Tyrannosaurus Rex — undoubtedly the most flagrantly and frequently discrepant dino depiction of all time. Per our new knowledge, artistic renderings of the Tyrant Lizard should start trending from this:

to this:

Still not something you want to meet in a dark alley anytime soon (then again, what would you want to meet in a dark alley?), but arguably a fraction less terrifying that the former Godzilla wannabe.

Of course, feathers do not a flighted fowl make, so if you prefer your Terrible Lizards airborne, might I suggest some minor historical revisionism: