Soundtracks

It’s a very cool find. I’m more excited about the recent news story that Sue, the famed Tyrannosaur fossil, might turn out to have been a male T-Rex because that would have implications for the upper limit on T-Rex size (females were bigger than males in T-Rex, so if Sue’s a male, that means there would almost have to be a bigger T-Rex out there somewhere not yet found). But the tail, with its perfectly preserved feather structure, is likely a member of the Coelurosauria (all dinosaurs more closely related to birds than carnosaurs were in this group) which means it’s a T-Rex relative.

Yes, T-Rex was a Coelurosaur, not a Carnosaur. Carnosaurs were more closely related to Allosaurus than birds, and T-Rex (despite its looks and predatory nature) was pretty darn close to birds. They may not have looked like giant rock doves, but they had a host of birdlike features. And one thing that little fossil tail might end up telling us is exactly how likely it is that they had feathers, at least in adolescence.

None of this is about World of Warcraft in the slightest, but y’all were going to ask me about it anyway. So there you go. Maybe someday I’ll do another dinosaur Queue.