Breelyn Webb

Feathers? Colored eggs? Wings? Thinking of birds? Yes, but also Dinosaurs in some cases.

Research regarding dinosaurs is constantly digging up new information. For centuries scientists have been studying these prehistoric creatures.

Discoveries and research of fossils like that of Archaeopteryx, a prehistoric bird with feathers and bone structure like modern birds, in the 1860s and Deinonychus, a bipedal, theropod (the same group of dinosaurs as the Tyrannosaurus rex), with feathers, 100 years later, show that the once thought relatives of lizards are more closely related to birds.

Some dinosaurs had colorful feathers, others had patterns on their skin used for camouflage, or laid colorful eggs. These characteristics challenge the depictions of dinosaurs in television, movies, and even past textbook drawings of dinosaurs, making them inaccurate. Spinosaurus is just one example.

Spinosaurus was thought to be a land dweller that waded in the water waiting for fish much like a bear. But earlier this year a study in Morocco led by Nizar Ibrahim, a vertebrate paleontologist at the University of Detroit, unearthed the most complete tail from a Spinosaurus. The paddle shape of this tail makes scientists believe it lived more of an aquatic life and propelled itself through the water.

As discoveries like that of the Spinosaurus’ tail continue to radically change what was once believed about dinosaurs and their time on this planet, the need arises to change models and other depictions to more accurately represent the latest research.

National Geographic’s October issue gives dinosaurs a “modern reboot,” showcasing accurate depictions of how dinosaurs moved, grew, looked, socialized, and hatched.

It begins with background about early depictions like those at Crystal Palace Park in England, where the world’s first public dinosaur showcase was held in 1854. They were more lizard-like reconstructions but no less important. They now act as a way to see how far research has come when compared to today.

In explaining developments regarding movement, growth, looks, socialization, and hatching, National Geographic resurrects and reconstructs various species, linking the past to the present and offering a more realistic, at least for now, representation of these now long-gone creatures.

If the trend of radically new findings coming out continues, however, even these depictions may become outdated.