TPO 31 Dinosaur fossil skeleton

The reading and lecture both are about dinosaur's fossil skeleton which is called Sinosauropteryx. The author of the reading passage claims that Sinosauropteryx had feathers. However, the lecturer casts doubts on the reasons made by the author. She is of the opinion that Sinosauropteryx was a feathered dinosaur and provided three strong evidence.

First, the author suggests that fine lines do no represent functional structures of a living dinosaur instead structures that were formed after the death of animals. On the other hand, the speaker refutes this by mentioning that those fine lines were not the result of animals' decomposition. In fact, it did not decompose the fossil of other animals that were buried at the same side. Moreover, evidence shows that the structure was very well preserved in volcanic ash. Thus, Sinosauropteryx lines were not skin fibers caused by decomposition.

Next, the writer contends that many dinosaurs had frills. Also, scientists can not tell what part of the dinosaur's anatomy were. In contrast, the professor explains that there is a huge chemical difference between feathers and frills. Feathers have proteins whereas frills do not contain proteins. Needless to say, analysts suggest that Sinosauropteryx contain proteins which clearly means dinosaurs had feathers, not frills.

Finally, the author posits that feathers are to help animals fly and lines in the dinosaur fossil were located on the backbone and tail of the animal, which would have made the structure useless for flight and limited use in thermoregulation. On the other hand, the lecturer mentions that feathers helped dinosaurs in thermoregulation. For instance, birds like peacock have many appealing, colorful feathers, which is called display function. In other words, it displays to attract their mates. In addition to this, analysis shows that dinosaur structures were orange and white in color, which strongly supports that feathers of dinosaurs used for display. Therefore, it is strongly represent by the professor that dinosaurs had feathers.