My 2 year old son is enamored with the PBS program “Dinosaur Train.” As any parent can
attest, it is amazing to watch a young one learn and become interested in new things.
His phrase de jour is “wassat;” not a
far cry from the proper English: “What is that?” It turns out; it is becoming
much more difficult, as a scientist, to answer him clearly and concisely. When
I was a kid, a dinosaur was a dinosaur – and will probably be the same for him,
but hang with me for a second. As I learned more, birds
were dinosaurs, crocodilians and turtles were dinosaurs. Heck dinosaurs
weren’t really extinct after all…well not genetically.
As a young boy growing up in the St. Louis suburbs, it was
also a known fact that all dinos
lived in dense steamy jungles. Recently it was published that this isn’t the whole
truth. A paper published, in the online journal Nature, describes fossilized
remains of several species of dinosaur detailed feather composition, and
concluded the feathers were too thick for warm environments. Further geological
evidence supports that mid-latitude areas of China experienced bone chilling
cold. So now it is hypothesized that dinosaur
feathers helped some species ride out harsh winters.
While some used the feathers to stay cozy in the cold,
others used feathers
with pizazz.
So, the next time my son asks – pointing to a tree with
birds chirping – “wassat?” I feel like
answering “a small flashy feathered dinosaur getting ready for a cold Midwestern
winter.” C’mon, it’s not like he has any idea what I am saying…yet!
Photo from National
Geographic (courtesy Mick Ellison).
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