T-rex with a conscience? Could be.
A team of Canadian and Chinese scientists have discovered a new species of tyrannosaur, Yutyrannus huali, which was a bit smaller than the feared beasts of Steven Spielberg fame and had feathers. It was also a bit smaller and, apparently, a bit better-looking, judging by the translation: "beautiful feathered tyrant." (Apparently, as well, it was still deadly.)
The excavations, from a dig in northeastern China, revealed evidence of remains of down-like feathers on the dinosaur's neck and arm. It wasn't enough to convince that the "feathered" referred to a full coat or giant bird-like wingfeathers or anything like that, but the discovery did give the excavation crew pause, enough to suggest that this species, at least, might have been a bit less like the movie-version giant tyrants that we've come to see in our imaginations.
This discovery will no doubt be more grist for the mill of debate surrounding how, when, and how fast certain species of dinosaurs lost their feathers — if they had any to begin with. The patchiness of fur found in the latest remains could suggest an overall patchy covering or, perhaps, an aging dinosaur who was losing its hair, or even a young dinosaur still growing into the coat. (One suggestion was even that the beast could ruffle its feathers and show off, like today's peacock species.) Like so many things with these ancient beasts, we just don't know and we won't ever find out firsthand (despite what Michael Crichton would have you believe).
This species lived 60 millions years before Tyrannosaurus rex, so there's little chance that they were directly related. However, that's not enough time to discount a connection altogether, either, so scientists in this field will take a good long look at these data when they are writing their next journal papers.
You can find the journal paper covering this latest discovery in Nature.
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