I just don’t how else to explain it, -I love this Jurassic Period reptile!

Paleontologists are discovering that a majority of dinosaurs were in fact covered with either feathers, or proto-feathers and more bird-like than they had thought possible. Juvenile dinosaurs are being discovered with intricate preserved details never seen before, details that often show evidence of having downy coat. -Just like baby chicks!

Avatar Lovers Rejoice!

While long extinct, these feathered gliding reptiles evolved here on Earth. Their DNA is still present, buried in the genome of today’s modern birds. Someday, geneticists may be able to extract this genome and recreate these awesome creatures. Don’t even ask why, -just because they can shall suffice.

When I first saw this display in the dinosaur wing of the Royal Ontario Museum (”ROM”) here in Toronto, I was amazed at how much it resembled those flying creatures from the movie Avatar. I could imagine a tropical forest world where these creatures glide through the canopy trees and tangle of vines. I could almost hear their cries and calls to one another.

Supposedly, the biodiversity that was depicted in the popular James Cameron film was meant to be a corollary to Earth’s living biodiversity and in the film, a lesson about what we are doing to our planet in the pursuit of modern industry, personal profit and staggeringly blind corporate wealth. We kill Mother Earth before we reach Pandora and we have not yet learned the lesson.

Can you imagine a world with creatures such as these gliding about overhead? ‘Alien’ describes it exactly.

Archaeopteryx or Gliding Reptile?

I was so taken by the site of this display that I didn’t even notice what this creature is called. It is one example of a primitive bird of course, -a gliding reptile. Similar if not directly related to the genus Archaeopteryx.

These were a transitional creature. A specie having traits such as teeth, scales and a bony tail like reptiles but also having many of the traits of modern birds. Notably, warm-blooded, hollow porous air-filled bone for reduced weight, feathers of course and presumeably, the ability to fly or glide. It is believed that creatures such as this are a direct link between saurian dinosaurs and today’s modern birds.

This particular specimen is approximately the size of a large raven or a small turkey. Flying reptiles of the Triassic and Jurassic Periods existed in sizes ranging from just a few inches to larger ones, such as this. They are forerunners of every bird that we know today.

Such bizarre and other-worldly creatures just like and even more strange and wonderful existed once. Right here in Earth. -Pandora would be envious.

(images by author)