Article/Documentary: Tyrannosaurus had red eyebrows.

[danmalcolm]

Is this new to anyone else? I haven't seen this before. Thoughts?

[danmalcolm]

Haha whoops. Here's the link. http://paleontologyworld.com/dinosaurs-%E2%80%93-species-encycolpedia-paleontologists-curiosities/t-rex-had-bushy-red-eyebrows-and

[stargatedalek]

100% made up speculation. Their sound is no more accurate than any other bird-esque sounds (iirc they just mixed a bittern and an alligator), and their life reconstruction is just bad. The skull is shrink-wrapped and the feathers are incredibly unnatural and unrealistic.

[danmalcolm]

What about the orange markings and black feathers?

[Joey]

100% made up speculation. Their sound is no more accurate than any other bird-esque sounds (iirc they just mixed a bittern and an alligator), and their life reconstruction is just bad. The skull is shrink-wrapped and the feathers are incredibly unnatural and unrealistic.

And to add on, the head shape is completely wrong and even has a weird overbite.

[John]

What about the orange markings and black feathers?

That too is speculation made up for the show.

[Joey]

What about the orange markings and black feathers?

That too is speculation made up for the show.

Agreed.

[ITdactyl]

Here's the final animated model


The original concept art can be found in the link below (art of kana-hebi)
https://kana-hebi.deviantart.com/art/Tyrannosaurus-rex-adult-concept-art-723415162

I have to agree, the awful promotional image is very far from the concept art (it even looks very different from the actual moving model).  Yes, there was that weird overbite (though that's not so apparent on the moving model).  My low res screen grab also does not do the final model justice.  It appears to be mangy, but the rest of the body does have a coat of smallish feathers.  They are just too sparse and almost the same color as the scales so they don't register in low resolutions.

The head shape matches the skull too closely, but at least the holes are not too obvious.  The eyes appear sunken due to the pronounced brows and the dark color around them.

The feathers of the moving model were initially closer to the concept art but near the end [of the show] they added a fluffy display "mane" since [per the script] the presenter believes as pack hunters a rex should also have a display structure.  The mane was the most opinion-based addition to the model.

They didn't mix bittern and alligator calls for the Rex sound effect.  The bittern was only used to explain how birds use closed mouth low frequency vocalization.  For the Rex call, they used a chinese alligator call lowered by 3 octaves (and then made significantly louder).

[WarrenJB]

What ITDactyl said. They claimed a few things on that show as solid fact, but a lot of the specifics of the appearance and vocalisations were plainly speculation and approximations. The red head markings and bristly mane were definitely 'why not' moments.

To be frank, I don't think that website helps. Never saw it before, and a quick glance at the linked page makes me never want to see it again. 'Bushy red eyebrows'? What!? Green T. rex in Jurassic Park? It reads worse than science journalism in tabloid papers, which at least has the bad excuse of unspecialised journos cherry-picking from press releases. It's one step up from 'CHRIS EVANS DINOSAUR HAD BUSHY RED EYEBROWS dino boffins have discovered that a dinosaur called T-Rex, which was a relative of T-Rex and was the T-Rex of it's time in North America, 65 milion years ago, was a ginger...'

[danmalcolm]

It was the first I'd seen it, and I haven't seen the doc. Too bad.