ZAP’S FACTS!
FEATHERED

Yutyrannus was a 30-foot tyrannosaur covered in feathers.

A cousin of T. rex, the size of a bus, wearing a coat of fuzz.

2 min read
A fluffy, orange Yutyrannus with a bright blue face and sharp teeth stands proudly, surrounded by playful feather motifs.
THE FULL STORY

In 2012, scientists in China unearthed something that changed the way we think about T. rex. Yutyrannus was a 30-foot, 3,000-pound tyrannosaur - a direct cousin of T. rex - and it had clear evidence of feathers preserved alongside the skeleton. The longest were up to 8 inches.

That made Yutyrannus the biggest feathered animal known to science, by far. No modern bird gets anywhere close. Suddenly, the leathery T. rex of older illustrations started to look a lot less likely. If a 30-foot tyrannosaur cousin had feathers, maybe T. rex did too - at least when young, or in cooler climates.

The feathers probably weren’t for flight (Yutyrannus couldn’t fly). They were more like a coat - keeping body heat in, or possibly for display, or both. A giant fluffy theropod.

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