
Research suggests T. Rex was covered in scales instead of feathers
EDMONTON — Research suggests Tyrannosaurus rex and some of its close relatives were covered in tiny scales and not feathers as many scientists previously thought.
An international team of researchers, including University of Alberta paleontologists, studied fossilized skin from massive carnivorous lizards known as tyrannosaurids.
Their ancestors, which were about the size of wolves or leopards, were coated in feathery fuzz, but somewhere along the way their descendants seem to have lost that attribute, said paleontologist Scott Persons, who contributed to the study.
“What we see here is actually evidence of feathers evolving and then being lost — or at least greatly reduced in terms of their number — in this one lineage of dinosaurs, which is strange,” he said.