Feathered Dinosaurs

In Our Time: Science

BBC

History

4.5 • 1.4K Ratings

🗓️ 26 October 2017

⏱️ 49 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

In a programme first broadcast in 2017, Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the development of theories about dinosaur feathers, following discoveries of fossils which show evidence of feathers. All dinosaurs were originally thought to be related to lizards - the word 'dinosaur' was created from the Greek for 'terrible lizard' - but that now appears false. In the last century, discoveries of fossils with feathers established that at least some dinosaurs were feathered and that some of those survived the great extinctions and evolved into the birds we see today. There are still many outstanding areas for study, such as what sorts of feathers they were, where on the body they were found, what their purpose was and which dinosaurs had them. With Mike Benton Professor of Vertebrate Palaeontology at the University of Bristol Steve Brusatte Reader and Chancellor's Fellow in Vertebrate Palaeontology at the University of Edinburgh and Maria McNamara Senior Lecturer in Geology at University College, Cork Producer: Simon Tillotson.

Transcript

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0:45.0	Hello, until 20 years ago dinosaurs were widely assumed to be large lumped lizards
0:51.0	that became extinct millions of years ago.
0:53.6	Discovered in China have since shown dramatically that many were fast and
0:57.4	feathered and some survived the great extinctions and are the ancestors of
1:01.2	our modern birds.
1:02.6	The recently discovered Chinese fossils of feathered dinosaurs
1:06.2	are so well preserved scientists can even work out the feathers colour
1:09.9	and where they were found on the dinosaurs bodies
1:12.2	and theorise about their use for displays, insulation and in some cases perhaps flight.
	...

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