feathered dinosaurs and weather

[mr d]

hello

 

has anyone seen any studies done on weather condiction during the rise of early feathered dinosaurs.

wondering if early developement of feathers began as more of a form of insulation than for flight. ice age, volcanic darken of the sky, etc, lowering temperature; leading to developement of feathering such as the down of young birds, which could be a vestage stage of early feather developement.

 

strange thoughts

 

mr d

[ecoli]

doesn't sound too unreasonable, as long as you can prove that animals with feathers first evolved in cold regions.

[aguy2]

wondering if early developement of feathers began as more of a form of insulation than for flight.

 

You don't want to forget 'display' either.

 

aguy2

[herpguy]

doesn't sound too unreasonable, as long as you can prove that animals with feathers first[/i'] evolved in cold regions.

I did some research, and it appears that all feathered dinosaurs first came from China. If we know what the climate of China was during the early Cretaceous, then we can prove that feathers evolved from temperatures cooling.

[mr d]

thanks for responces.

doing a little research and found this map of land masses during the cresteous

http://www.paleoportal.org/time_space/period.php?period_id=18#5

which shows china to be more northerly than it currently is, however no listing of weather patterns.

thanks mr d

[Bluenoise]

has anyone seen any studies done on weather condiction during the rise of early feathered dinosaurs.

wondering if early developement of feathers began as more of a form of insulation than for flight. ice age' date=' volcanic darken of the sky, etc, lowering temperature; leading to developement of feathering such as the down of young birds, which could be a vestage stage of early feather developement.

[/quote']

 

Well that's the currently most accepted theory. Apparently early ancestors of T-rex were feathered, and they definatley didn't fly. It seems a whole lot of dinosaurs were.

 

Plus feathers don't have to just insulate from the cold. They can block the sun as well, plus provide padding, reduce scraping etc.

[Sayonara]

You don't want to forget 'display' either.

 

aguy2

I wouldn't have thought that would be a function of early feathers, which iirc were thought to simply be scales with complex structure.

 

Display probably came much later on as a secondary (but selectively important) function.

[herpguy]

After doing more reserch, I have found that the earliest feathered dinosaurs first appered at about 145 million years ago. At this time, it was the coldest it would ever be in the Mesozoic. Although it would still seem rather warm and humid to us, the dionosaurs probably considered it cold. So your theory is probably correct.

Sources:

http://www.geocities.com/dannsdinosaurs/featdino.html

http://www.palaeos.com/Mesozoic/Cretaceous/Neocomian.htm