So without their feathers they look like they act?
this post was submitted on 03 Mar 2026
764 points (98.8% liked)
Science Memes
19700 readers
1933 users here now
Welcome to c/science_memes @ Mander.xyz!
A place for majestic STEMLORD peacocking, as well as memes about the realities of working in a lab.
Rules
- Don't throw mud. Behave like an intellectual and remember the human.
- Keep it rooted (on topic).
- No spam.
- Infographics welcome, get schooled.
This is a science community. We use the Dawkins definition of meme.
Research Committee
Other Mander Communities
Science and Research
Biology and Life Sciences
- !abiogenesis@mander.xyz
- !animal-behavior@mander.xyz
- !anthropology@mander.xyz
- !arachnology@mander.xyz
- !balconygardening@slrpnk.net
- !biodiversity@mander.xyz
- !biology@mander.xyz
- !biophysics@mander.xyz
- !botany@mander.xyz
- !ecology@mander.xyz
- !entomology@mander.xyz
- !fermentation@mander.xyz
- !herpetology@mander.xyz
- !houseplants@mander.xyz
- !medicine@mander.xyz
- !microscopy@mander.xyz
- !mycology@mander.xyz
- !nudibranchs@mander.xyz
- !nutrition@mander.xyz
- !palaeoecology@mander.xyz
- !palaeontology@mander.xyz
- !photosynthesis@mander.xyz
- !plantid@mander.xyz
- !plants@mander.xyz
- !reptiles and amphibians@mander.xyz
Physical Sciences
- !astronomy@mander.xyz
- !chemistry@mander.xyz
- !earthscience@mander.xyz
- !geography@mander.xyz
- !geospatial@mander.xyz
- !nuclear@mander.xyz
- !physics@mander.xyz
- !quantum-computing@mander.xyz
- !spectroscopy@mander.xyz
Humanities and Social Sciences
Practical and Applied Sciences
- !exercise-and sports-science@mander.xyz
- !gardening@mander.xyz
- !self sufficiency@mander.xyz
- !soilscience@slrpnk.net
- !terrariums@mander.xyz
- !timelapse@mander.xyz
Memes
Miscellaneous
founded 3 years ago
MODERATORS
I hope what you're implying is that swan feathers are a suit made to deceive humans from their obvious lizard people pet agenda, and that Big Feather needs to be held accountable. I've already booked guests for the podcast and have 17 articles in my substack,
I want to see a Jurassic Park movie where it's just geese and swans breaking out of captivity, and mildly annoying everyone.
You’ve never met a swan, have you?
“Mild annoyance” are the seagulls stealing your food.
(Yes, that swan dunked the seagull so it couldn’t fly away.)
Swans don’t steal food. You give it to them hoping they don’t murder you.
Weirdly, the notion that swans are particularly aggressive is one I learnt on the English-speaking part of the internet (so I instantly assume it's an USianism). Any references to swan behaviour that I can find in German talk about how they're associated with calm and serenity.
That's because the Germans have enough sense and morals to leave them alone :)
They are calm... by German standards.
I've hung out with swans heaps in Australia and they've been almost entirely chill bros who will take food if offered but won't harass you for it. I wonder if different species have different demeanours, like how Canada geese are known for being especially aggressive.
i have to wonder if americans uh, get them confused with geese.. Because geese can absolutely have a tendency to actively harass you, while swans don't get close enough to interact with us in the first place.
Unless american swans are just suffering from lead poisoning like the general population?
load more comments
(3 replies)
load more comments
(1 replies)
"Remain perfectly still, their vision is based on movement."
"Nah, fuck this bird." Kicks swan to the moon
Boy have I got the video game for you: Untitled Goose Game
load more comments
(3 replies)
That statement should start with "in the past". Recent depictions I've seen have them fully fleshed and feathered using up to date methods to create as accurate as possible models.
We even have ways to figure out their colouring in some cases now! Like this sinosauropteryx:
That's cool. How did they figure out the colouring?
They found preserved melanosomes. It was previously thought these were the remains of bacteria.
You can find details here, but I highly recommend reading Dinosaurs: New Visions of a Lost World by Michael J. Benton, who was one of the ones doing the research. The book is very fun to read (he's got that typical dry british humour), does a great job of describing the history and current status of paleontology (which is apparently exploding in new discoveries right now) and it has absolutely lovely illustrations, including the one I linked above. And also this anurognathus that is the cutest thing ever:
That's cool. We're going to look back at present views of dinosaurs with laughter it sounds like. Thanks for the answer. I'll check out the book.
I just ordered it. I had a girlfriend a few years ago and she was cleaning out some stuff. She found her old dinosaur stuff and asked me if i wanted it for my nephew. I asked her how outdated the things were. She looked at me pretty shocked and said: they are millions of years old, nothing has changed. I found that pretty funny
load more comments
(1 replies)
yeah, we have some absolutely amazing art these days. i particularly love this type of depiction of dromaeosaurs: Just MASSIVE birds with teeth instead of beaks and huge claws, they feel very.. cromulent..
That post is of course a billion years old itself and the images created by shrink-wrapping are still in people's heads. Feathers on dinosaurs are rarely what people think of first as well and the notion has been around for quite a while.
Feathers have been found on dinosaur fossils only "recently", with the discovery of Sinosauropteryx in 1996
load more comments
(4 replies)
I mean the lizard dinosaurs are everywhere. Every toy, movie, even in schools.
load more comments
(1 replies)
A giant chicken, truly terrifying.
New pokemon looks different
It's neck is tied into a fucking knot 😂
That said though, this birb slaps. Really high power and good typing for the early game
It's the go-to for S/V speedrunning for a reason! Low kick, double kick, and acrobatics turn it into a bulldozer XD
Choose Goose is looking rough.
I am both frightened and aroused
This is so outdated it's wrong.
crazy how there's billion dollar movies that have embarrassingly incorrect dinosaurs in them
Movies often align to the popular perception if a thing rather than reality. Otherwise you're watching a documentary.
it's not like documentaries aren't plenty popular, that recent series on dinosaurs (walking with dinosaurs, i think?) with our homeboy David Attenborough was hyped as fuck, no cap, on god, etc
load more comments
(2 replies)
load more comments
(1 replies)
While the look is based in old misconceptions of dinosaur biology, the Jurassic Park dinos lacking feathers actually works really well for the story. They were never meant to be real dinosaurs. They're just theme park attractions, so of course they look how the customers expect them to. Just like how most of them aren't even from the Jurassic period.
Yes that was the retcon explanation. The actual explanation is that they wanted to have Velociraptors in the movie and weren't really bothered about the fact that they aren't actually that big, there are species of raptor that are that large, but they didn't want to use their names because they were less well-known. Velociraptor was one of the few dinosaurs people knew. T-Rex didn't become famous until after Jurassic Park.
load more comments
(1 replies)
Is it all the dinosaurs? Or just ones from specific eras that likely had feathers? Ill try to find ou5 myself later. But if anybody has a link to something akin to "feathered dinos for dummies" id love to check it out
From what i've seen it's basically 50/50 if any one species had a significant amount of feathers, but feathers do seem to have existed in the earliest dinosaur ancestor so it could maybe potentially show up in any species.
Then you can get more detailed and memorize which kinds of dinosaur had what kind of feather covering, like sauropods seem to at most have some quills and similar decorations, while dromaeosaurs (dakotaraptor, velociraptor, etc) were basically big murder birds with full on wings.
But of course even within clades there could be significant difference: T.rex seems to have been, uh, covered in straight up skin like a giant plucked chicken.. but at least some of its relatives were mostly covered in feathers.
load more comments
(2 replies)
All birds today are actually coelurosauria dinosaurs, a group of theropods (T-rex and raptor-shape dinosaurs) who are thought to have all had feathers for warmth, show, and/or gliding and flight. I know we have evidence that some other theropods had feathers (or at least hairy stuff), but I don't know whether the rest of them are lacking evidence of feathers or whether we have evidence against them having feathers.
I would also love such a book, preferably with lots of pictures.
Wet owl moment
If swans were making a metal band...
They'd look like dinosaurs.
I fucking knew it, they’re Tyranids!!
"Scientists believe that these strange creatures used their spiky arms to spear their prey."
view more: next ›