How do we know what dinosaurs looked like?
How do we know what dinosaurs looked like?
Paleontologists pull inspiration from modern birds and reptiles to design true-to-life T. rexes.
Sara Chodosh
April 11, 2020
https://www.popsci.com/story/science/dinosaur-drawings-accuracte/?utm_source=pocket-newtab
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You’ve seen enough museum models, illustrations, and CGI predators that you’d likely recognize a Tyrannosaurus rex if you saw one. But how can you be sure? Nobody has ever clapped eyes on one in real life, and even the best skeletons are often only 90 percent complete. Specialists called paleoartists do base their re-creations on hard evidence (bones, feathers, and bits of skin) but, just as often, well-informed guesses. We may never know exactly how T. rex and other prehistoric creatures like the Microraptor gui looked, but here’s how we landed on the current incarnations of these deceased beasts.
Stance
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Muscle and fat
Like reptiles, dinosaurs probably didn’t have much body fat, so they looked pretty swole. To determine just how stocky or svelte to render a species, paleontologists most often refer to the same muscle groups in birds. But sometimes there’s an evolutionary reason to make an area extra burly: A T. rex, for example, had to kill prey and bite through bone with only its jaw strength—hence its thick-neckedness.
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Limbs
Bones’ structures can indicate how appendages moved. T. rex, for one, used to be shown with its hands facing down, like it was playing a piano, but a 2018 analysis of turkey and alligator shoulders determined their palms may have turned in. Similarly, the angle between M. gui’s shoulder blades and rib cage may have prevented its wings from lifting high enough to flap; wind-tunnel tests suggest these dinos glided.
Skin
Soft tissue generally doesn’t last underground, but sometimes we get lucky. For the T. rex, a small slice of fossilized skin found in Montana enabled artists to make a stamp of the texture and apply it to the rest of the body. Coloring is trickier: Designers take cues from the environment more than the fossil record. T. rex lived in semi-marshy areas and flood plains, so it likely had brownish-greenish dappled skin to blend in.
Feathers
Tiny cellular structures called melanosomes vary in color depending on their shape: Black ones are sausage-like; reds are round. Thanks to a very well-preserved M. gui feather, we know it shone raven. Nanostructures also suggest it had an iridescent sheen, like a crow or magpie. We’ve never dug up a plumed T. rex, but its close relatives often have protofeathers on their heads, backs, and tails, so we suspect the king did, too.
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For starters, a lot of them died off. It was in all the papers.
But to have him play the worst earworm of all time on the accordion? 
I don't think I ever told you where I live. I'll have to send you a DM at some point. You are going to laugh.
I was fascinated with them. At one time the little plastic ones were cereal box prizes - I'm sure I had this one:
Next, they have their kids draw them as they describe the creatures during a stoner haze. Drawings are submitted for peer review, then published.
Same with rocket scientists, I hear.
Simple............
Seriously, the art of envisioning those creatures takes a lot of skill and research. Kudos to those that do the art for us.
We took along our great nephew's stuffed dinosaur and took pictures with the modeled T-rexes:
Turkey sized baby:
Four year old juvenile:
Adult T-rex:
great aunt and uncle ever!
Taking your great-nephews little dinosaur to take pictures with the real dinosaurs. That is so cool. He must have loved it!
I'm sitting here, smiling from ear-to-ear just picturing the two of you taking Dino all over the world.
Yes, the two of you deserve some sort of award.
Best great-aunt and Uncle ever! 
