T. rex Skin: MY Thoughts and Conclusions

The debate about if T. rex had or not feathers is not new, but more wood was thrown in the fire with a recent study where various proportionally small tyrannosaurid skin impressions were put together in order to bring us closer to what these animals really looked like. Even before that it was widely known that a specimen called "Wyrex" was found with a tiny, coin sized skin impression on the it's tail... on a region where more distant relatives had feathers. Many, among these: me, speculated that even with this the possibility of T. rex having a somewhat decent amount of feathers was certain because modern birds show the exact same feathers as theropods that lived 120 million years ago. What we completely forgot, and I must say I am partially hating myself for this, is that evolution does not work trough strict patterns and something that looks like a rule may not be a rule.

In the most recent study, various tyrannosaurid skin impressions were brought together. These included scaly impressions from the neck, belly, hip and tail and were got from T. rex, Gorgosaurus and Daspletosaurus specimens that were found across the US. Even if the impressions were tiny in proportion to the animals themselves, the regions in wich they were found clearly showed that a great part (if not most) of the animal's surface was covered in scales. As if that was not enough, Dr Carr confirmed  to a friend of mine that a mummified Tarbosaurus bataar specimen was found and photographed. It showed scaly impressions on it's belly, chest, back and neck, also scaly skin impressions from the back of a T. rex were also found in Montana (this was also confirmed to my friend by a paleontologist). So basically fossil record proves that, where today is the US, tyrannosaurids lost their feathers over time.

However there is another aspect that the paleontologists did not have in mind: northern tyrannosaurids. Remember when I said that among the specimens studied were Gorgosaurus specimens? Well some Gorgosaurus were already found in ALASKA (where it would be freezing even in the Creteceous) and, in fact, even T. rexes were found in the canadian territory (where temperatures are also very low). In this case (most notably in Gorgosaurus, as it was far smaller and more slender than T. rex) they would need a coat of feathers to survive, while in the US (where tenperatures would be higher) they showed scaly skin.

The conclusion we can make with this is that tyrannosaurids on colder climates on the northern regions had feathers to keep warm, while those in warmer climates on the southern regions survived with scales since feathers were not needed. This is why I called this model a "hybrid": because while it has feathers, this coat would not be enough to keep it warm on northern regions. In other words: it looks like an actual hybrid between a northern T. rex and a southern T. rex.

As I want as many people as possible to know this, I tag





(maybe this will help you for future updates for Saurian's T. rex)









(it turns out you were right)