How can humans know that dinosaurs looked like reptiles?

[sevensages]

TL;DR Summary

How do we know that dinosaurs had skin that made them look like reptiles as opposed to having fur?

In all the replicas of dinosaurs that I have seen in museums and on tv and in movies (such as Jurassic Park), the dinosaurs have a greenish/blue skin without fur that makes the dinosaurs look like modern day reptiles. But I don't see how it is possible for any human to know what dinosaurs looked like except for the shape. The dinosaurs went extinct 65 million years ago. But homo sapiens have only been around for less than a million years. So we cannot get an idea of what dinosaurs looked like from looking at cave art made by the cave men in prehistoric times. The only evidence we have of the existence of dinosaurs are their fossils. We can tell from the shape of dinosaurs fossils that dinosaurs did not have wings (except for the petrodactyl). So we know that no dinosaurs except the petrodactyl could fly. So I suppose we can glean from that that dinosaurs did not have feathers (except for mabye the petrodactyl).

Isn't it possible that the non-flying dinosaurs such as the brontosaurus, the triceratops, and the Tyrannosaurus Rex had fur?

What's with all replicas of dinosaurs showing dinosaurs to have blueish/green skin like reptiles?

How do we know that the dinosaurs looked like huge reptiles?

 

[phinds]

What research have you done on this? What have you found? Are we supposed to do it for you?

A VERY quick search led to:

There ARE dinosaurs that had fur but only a few, and in general:

• Dinosaur fossils, particularly skeletal remains, show characteristics similar to modern reptiles
• Skin Impressions: Some fossilized skin impressions reveal scaly textures similar to those of reptiles.
• Skeletal Structure: Dinosaur limb and pelvic structures share characteristics with reptiles.
• Many dinosaurs had teeth and jaw structures resembling those of modern reptiles

 

[sevensages]

What research have you done on this? What have you found? Are we supposed to do it for you?

A VERY quick search led to:

There ARE dinosaurs that had fur but only a few, and in general:

• Dinosaur fossils, particularly skeletal remains, show characteristics similar to modern reptiles
• Skin Impressions: Some fossilized skin impressions reveal scaly textures similar to those of reptiles.
• Skeletal Structure: Dinosaur limb and pelvic structures share characteristics with reptiles.
• Many dinosaurs had teeth and jaw structures resembling those of modern reptiles

How can you know that there were dinosaurs that had fur?

To my knowledge, There is no way that anyone could research this. Therefore, to my knowledge, there is no way that I can research this.

The only evidence we have of dinosaurs is a bunch of bones. We don't have dinosaurs skins.

 

[berkeman]

Skin Impressions: Some fossilized skin impressions reveal scaly textures similar to those of reptiles.

We don't have dinosaurs skins.

Do you know what the word "fossilized" means?

 

[sevensages]

Do you know what the word "fossilized" means?

Fossilized means preserved as a fossil.

 

[berkeman]

Fossilized means preserved as a fossil.

"Here's your sign..."

Spoiler

 

[phinds]

To my knowledge, There is no way that anyone could research this. Therefore, to my knowledge, there is no way that I can research this.

So you just started with the assumption that no research was possible. Very scientific.

 

[PeroK]

How can you know that there were dinosaurs that had fur?

To my knowledge, There is no way that anyone could research this. Therefore, to my knowledge, there is no way that I can research this.

The only evidence we have of dinosaurs is a bunch of bones. We don't have dinosaurs skins.

The seventh sage has spoken:

Whereof I know not, thereof all mankind is ignorant.

Ignorance is strength. George Orwell (1984)

 

[gmax137]

@sevensages just google
fossilized dinosaur skin

 

[PeterDonis]

To my knowledge, There is no way that anyone could research this.

Have you actually looked to see if people have researched this? (Hint: they have.) Have you actually tried to see if they have reasonable arguments for the conclusions they are drawing? (Hint: they do.)

"To my knowledge" might just mean your knowledge needs a lot of expanding.

 

[Frabjous]

Some had feathers.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Feathered_dinosaur

 

[Mark44]

There ARE dinosaurs that had fur but only a few

I'm not aware of any that had fur, but I could be wrong. Feathers, I'll buy.

Sort of on topic. The Natural History Museum in Salt Lake City (my wife's daughter works there as an anthropologist) has a huge collection of dinosaur skeletons on display, including Allosaurs (which I believe used to be called brontosaurs) T Rexes, Tricerotops, and a whole bunch more. Many of these were found in various places in Utah as well as elsewhere in the US West and the world.

 

[phinds]

I'm not aware of any that had fur, but I could be wrong. Feathers, I'll buy.

D'oH !!! Of course I mean feathers.

 

[PeroK]

Sort of on topic. The Natural History Museum in Salt Lake City (my wife's daughter works there as an anthropologist) has a huge collection of dinosaur skeletons on display, including Allosaurs (which I believe used to be called brontosaurs)

The allosaurus was was brother's favourite dinosaur. It was a predator: a smaller version of T-Rex. The brontosaurus was a giant plant eater - I had a model of that one, although stegosaurus was my favourite.

This is the allosaurus.

 

[pinball1970]

How can you know that there were dinosaurs that had fur?

To my knowledge, There is no way that anyone could research this. Therefore, to my knowledge, there is no way that I can research this.

The only evidence we have of dinosaurs is a bunch of bones. We don't have dinosaurs skins.

Lots of research on this. EDIT I forgot to put the link in.

This is an article with a link to a paper.

https://phys.org/news/2018-12-scientists-birds-dinosaurs-evolved-dazzle.html

"Aside from making Jurassic ecosystems of 161 million years ago more colorful, the dinosaur is interesting because it has features that are both ancient and modern, said co-author Xing Xu, a professor at the Chines Academy of Sciences. The bony crest is a feature usually seen in dinosaurs from earlier eras, while its neck feathers show evidence of microscopic wide, flat, pigment-containing packages, or melanosomes, that may represent the first known occurrence of iridescence similar to that found in a variety of hummingbird species living today."

Probably useful looking at the Evolutionary history of modern birds too.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evolution_of_birds

 

[pinball1970]

The only evidence we have of dinosaurs is a bunch of bones

Just to add, yikes!

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paleontology

 

[Mark44]

The allosaurus was was brother's favourite dinosaur. It was a predator: a smaller version of T-Rex. The brontosaurus was a giant plant eater

No doubt I erred in what I said about the allosaurus. In any case, the museum I mentioned has a huge skeleton of what I thought was a brontosaurus but with a different name.

 

[russ_watters]

D'oH !!! Of course I mean feathers.

I don't know if I misread or the OP/title got changed but I saw "fur" at first too. Nevertheless, googling "how do we know dinosaurs had fur" gets you to feathers.

 

[BillTre]

There are no known examples of dinosaurs with fur that I know of. Fur is generally considered an innovation of mammals (which I think predated dinosaurs).
Some fuzzy dinosaurs have been reported, but that is feather fuzz like found on some birds and is often used to line their nests (nice and soft).
In some cases of exceptional preservation great structural details can be preserved. One of the best preserved non-feathered skin examples is an Ankylosaurus from Canada (I think).

Not all dinosaurs had feathers, but some did.
There have been a lot of recently discovered feathered dinosaur examples from China.

I believe there are more than one group of feathered dinosaurs (not related to the Ankylosaurus). The birds are one of these groups.
There are (I think more than one) non-feathered non-dinosaur reptiles that could fly, like Pterodactyl.

Colors and Chemicals
Feathers can have color due to pigmentation (in pigment granules in cells, which can be seen in some good fossils) or due microscopic structures that generate colors due to interference patterns in reflected light (not sure if that has been seen in fossils or not).
Some chemicals (like pigments) or their fossilized chemical derivatives) can be found in some fossils. The fossilized derivative of a chemical found only in animals (as opposed to plants and fungi) has even been detected in Cambrian fossils. These are some of the oldest animal fossils!

There are lots of articles on these subjects if you look for them on Google correctly.