Why Dinosaurs Had Feathers

It is generally undisputed in the scientific community that some dinosaurs had feathers, if not most. Dinosaurs are very special animals, I don’t say that because they’re near my heart, but they really are special animals they don’t fit into the gator group, the lizard group, any other group for that matter. It’s crazy, they make up their own clade, ‘Dinosauria’. But since their first remains were discovered in 1819 and described in 1824 by William Buckland, a lot of information has come out about these amazing animals. For example, in the 60s Dr. Robert Bakker made a series of amazing discoveries revealing the behavior of dinosaurs. He discovered Dromaeosaurids were witty, and speedy killers. He also discovered that most dinosaurs were warm-blooded. Fast forward a little more than thirty years and you’ll see the modern revolution of paleontology. Of course, Jurassic Park was released in 1993 and Walking with Dinosaurs by BBC was released in 1999, but the dinosaur revolution was more than just special effects in a movie, it was the discovery of a series of feathered dinosaurs. Until 1999 only four dinosaurs had been found with clear depictions of feathers, the first being Archaeopteryx. But in 1999 an amazing specimen was discovered. It was the remains of Sinornithosaurus. Sinornithosaurus is my personal favorite dinosaur so I have often asked myself, ‘Why would God create dinosaurs with feathers?’. 

First off, let’s get rid of any doubt that some dinosaurs had feathers. Some may find it fishy that most feathered dinosaurs were found in Asia, I would say, that person is being superstitious. Some have suggested that the supposed feathers are the result of capillary action. However, further investigation into a particular feathered dinosaur, Sinosauropteryx paleontologists have discovered that there is pigment in the feathery structures, which proved beyond a shadow of a doubt it was clad in feathers. Pigments were also found in Archaeopteryx. With these pigments we can determine what color these dinosaurs were!

Dr. Marcus Ross, a PhD vertebrate paleontologist told me in my interview with him, 

“The thing about dinosaurs… yeah they got feathers” as I said, “Amen” he said, “And it’s fine, it’s okay, in fact it’s neat! Dinosaurs are fluffy, very, very fluffy, and probably far more colorful than anything I ever grew up thinking about.”. And dinosaur feathers were more than just for show, some were used for flight. This is why the dinosaur revolution was such a big deal, for a long time paleontologists thought dinosaurs never did two things, rule the water, and rule the skies. But they were wrong! Spinosaurus ruled the water and other Spinosaurids, and others like Microraptor, Sinornithosaurus, and Epidexipteryx ruled the skies. To be fair, dinosaurs never made it to powered flight. Dinosaurs were gliders, not fliers. Also, some feathers may have been used to keep warm.

Some dinosaurs had feathers just for show, some dinosaurs had feathers for flight, some dinosaurs had feathers for warmth, but the most crucial thing is that, God created dinosaurs with feathers.