Velociraptorother, Oviraptor, & other feathered Dinosaurs

Velociraptor Hunting Lessons

(This was drawn this week for the daughter of a motel clerk in Kansas.
 So this is a new drawing.)

Velociraptor and Oviraptor almost certainly had feathers.  In fact, the dreaded Velociraptor looked more like a roadrunner than a lizard.  Paleontologists in China have found several small dinosaurs. . . RAPTOR dinosaurs with feather impressions or fossilized feathers.  They now infer that the very well known desert dwelling Velociraptor had feathers.  Mongolia, where Velociraptor was found is not far from China.  By the way, Oviraptor was also found in the Gobi Desert of Mongolia.  Oviraptor was misnamed.  The paleontologists thought it died stealing eggs.  So they named it Oviraptor which means egg strealer.   But when the eggs were X-rayed they discovered that the eggs contained Oviraptors.

You may be surprised to learn that one of the Paleontologists at the University of Utah thinks that one day we will find a feathered T. rex.   In fact, one of the larger fetathered dinosaurs they found in China was Yutyrannus hauli,  a 30 foot or 11 meter long tyrannosaur.   Some paleontologists think that young T. rex or T. rex chicks had feathers that they gradually lost as they matured.

 Some of the feathered dinosaurs they have found are flyers.  They are NOT Pterosaurs.  They are feathered and flying dinosaurs.  When I was a kid I thought Pterosaurs evolved into birds.  I did not have a great understanding of evolution, but I DID understand that some early forms of life evolved into our modern animals.  I now know that feathered dinosaurs are what evolved into our modern birds.  Some biologists call birds "avian dinosaurs."  Pterosaurs actually died off with the non-avian dinosaurs.   A European feathered and flying dinosaur is perhaps the first bird.  It is called Archaeopteryx.  Archaeopteryx actually still had teeth instead of a beak, but some of the feathered dinosaurs had beaks.  It is also thought that some Theropod dinosaurs may have at least had protofeathers.  Birds are therefore Theropod dinosaurs.

Another evolution knowledge mistake I made as a kid was thinking that ducks, geese, and swans evolved from duckbilled dinosaurs.  That is not true.  Ducks evolved from the feathered dinosaurs just like eagled did. .. . . but of course ducks evolved that duck bill on their own.  The fact that the modern water fowl have duck bills and some dinos did to is an example of convergent evolution.  The evolution of a common trait in animals that are not related at all.

Oviraptor at Nest
(This is also a new drawing.  New printable versions of the
drawings are at the bottom of the correct list.
The lists are found by clicking on the buttons up top.)

Velociraptor in the Gobi Desert

Yutyrannus 

Feathered T. rex

Microraptor flying through the Forest

Archaeopteryx Pair in the Forest

Protoopteryx in Ginkgo Tree

Half Feathered T. rex and Qetzalcoatalus

Jurassic Forest

Rainbow Dinosaur Caihong juju cartoon

Lythronax the Gore King
(Notice the protofeathers)

(The below drawings from previous posts are  modern avian dinosaurs.)

Bald Eagle flying over Southeast Alaska

Quack Quack

Swan Realistic

dinosaurs.