Talk:Tyrannosaurus/@comment-2601:640:C400:313F:881F:B2F2:6559:A665-20181023051426/@comment-37103883-20190201185028

Well, it is known for certain that some relatives of Tyrannosaurus were feathered. Dilong and the closely related Guanlong were two somewhat small ancestors of T-Rex from the Early Cretaceous Period. Fossils of Dilong have shown evidence of “Stage 1” feathers, which are basically fine filaments, as opposed to the complex “contour” feathers used for flight that are seen in modern birds. Though it hasn’t been directly discovered, it’s quite likely that Guanlong also had these feathers.

However, it’s not such a stretch to believe that smaller dinos – even ones that would eventually give rise to one of the largest predators of all time – were covered in feathers. It can be a bit more difficult to accept that a larger predator like T-Rex was fully fluffed and feathered. That’s where Yutyrannus comes in.

So, if a large tyrannosaur relative like Yutyrannus was feathered, it stands to reason that T-Rex could have also been both fluffy and ferocious too, right?Yutyrannus was another T-Rex relative, but unlike the smaller, more slender Dilong, it was much closer in size and proportion to the Tyrannosaurus that most dino-fans are familiar with. Yutyrannus could grow to almost 30 feet in length, and is currently the largest known dinosaur to show direct fossil evidence of feathers.