Did T. rex have feathers?
Fossil impressions show that T. rex had scales on parts of its body. But nobody has found its whole covering, so scientists cannot rule out feathers on the parts we have not seen. Feathered relatives give useful clues, yet they do not give us a finished portrait of T. rex.
What the skin impressions show
Impressions from the neck, the hip area and the tail show small scales. For those parts of the animal, that is direct evidence.
The rest of the body has not been preserved. So anyone drawing a T. rex has to keep two things apart: what has actually been found, and what is still uncertain.
Why relatives matter
Some meat-eating dinosaurs related to T. rex had feathers. By comparing relatives, scientists can work out which features may have been handed down from the ancestors they shared.
But close relatives do not always have the same covering. Feathered relatives alone do not prove that a grown-up T. rex was feathered all over.
Meet Yutyrannus
Yutyrannus was a big relative from China, and its fossils show feathers quite clearly. It lived earlier than T. rex and was a different animal.
So a large dinosaur could have feathers. What T. rex itself looked like is another question.
Velociraptor had feathers
A forearm bone of Velociraptor has small bumps where large feathers were attached. It had feathers, then, but it could not fly.
Feathers were useful in other ways, such as keeping warm and showing off. So the feathered Velociraptor is the one backed by evidence. The bare-skinned version you see in some films is not.
How to draw what we know
For T. rex, scales are a safe choice. Its full covering and its colours are still uncertain, so if you add details from your imagination, label them as your own ideas.
Velociraptor is easier. Give it feathers, and don’t forget the curved claw on each foot.
Questions kids ask
- Did T. rex have feathers?
- The skin impressions we have show scales. Feathers elsewhere on its body are still uncertain.
- Why do some books show a feathered T. rex?
- Artists use what is known about its relatives to try out how it might have looked. Some of those details are ideas, not things seen in the fossils.
- Was Yutyrannus the same animal as T. rex?
- No. It was an earlier relative from China, and its fossils show feathers.
- Which dinosaurs definitely had feathers?
- Velociraptor and many other theropods did. And every living bird is a feathered dinosaur too.
- Why have feathers if you can’t fly?
- Feathers can keep an animal warm and help it show off, among other things.
- Is the T. rex in Jurassic Park accurate?
- Its scaly skin matches some of the fossil evidence. But a film cannot settle the details that nobody knows.
Remember this
- Label each feature “known from fossils” or “my own idea”.
- Don’t mix up Yutyrannus and T. rex. They are relatives, not the same species.
- A sparrow is a living, feathered dinosaur.