1104: Feathers

Explain xkcd: It's 'cause you're dumb.
Revision as of 17:34, 6 September 2012 by Cos (talk | contribs) (Explanation: removed the (true but) unnecessary complication between Velociraptor and Deinonychus, for clarity in the explanation, since they all are Dromaeosauridae which are informally called "raptors"; added mention of Microraptor)
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Feathers
Click to see a video of a modern bird using stability flapping during predatory behavior. It all fits! Also, apparently Microraptor had *four* wings? The past keeps getting cooler! (And there's more of it every day!)
Title text: Click to see a video of a modern bird using stability flapping during predatory behavior. It all fits! Also, apparently Microraptor had *four* wings? The past keeps getting cooler! (And there's more of it every day!)

Explanation

Dinosaurs have been a fascinating topic in popular science and captivated children's interest since the first fossils were discovered in modern times around the 1700's. Prior discoveries in China were described as dragon bones. The success of the Jurassic Park movies resulted in a possibly erroneous understanding of how dinosaurs looked by the majority of the general public. Since the first movie of that series new scientific evidence has emerged suggesting that Dromaeosauridae, or "raptors", the main antagonists of that movie, may have looked quite different from their animatronic imitations (featured in the movies); in particular, they are now thought to have had feathers and perhaps even wings.

Artist's impression of a "raptor prey restraint" as suggested by Fowler et al. (2011), and described by the child in the comic. (from Wikimedia Commons)

Dennis Fowler is among the scientists who support this hypothesis. The comic refers to a publication by him and his colleagues ("et al."), in the PLoS ONE, an online scientific journal ("PLoS" stands for "Public Library of Science").

Megan is dismissive about this new hypothesis, as is typical of grownups beyond a certain age. But the way in which the child reformulates it catches her interest – apparently the new raptors have become even better candidates for a good action thriller movie than the original version. Thus the phrase "the past keeps getting cooler".

Clicking on the original cartoon links to a YouTube video of a bird of prey using its wings for stability while standing on top of a moving prey, from which one can easily envision instead a raptor upon its prey – especially in case of some kind of "raptorphobia", as for Randall (see comics #87 and #135). Microraptor was a small raptor with four wings, which lets imagine even more scarier scenes.


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Discussion

Okay, this is seriously messing with my world. T-Rex covered in downy goodness? I mean it explains a lot, like how they were able to survive in Northern Climes, but, I don't know...--grate314 (talk) 12:38, 5 September 2012 (UTC)

Lets put it this way, would it be any less intimidating if it were chasing you? -Pennpenn 108.162.250.162 04:08, 25 January 2016 (UTC)


If anyone wanted to look at it, here's a link to the article mentioned

http://www.plosone.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pone.0007999


I think the linked article is the wrong one. First, it was published in 2009, not 2012. And second, it's talking about raptors (eagles), not (veloci)raptors (dinosaurs). Oddly, it is talking about raptors (eagles) restraining prey, so maybe Randal made the mistake? No, the picture's caption clearly references another article. I'm having a hard time tracking it down. 96.43.65.242 21:01, 5 September 2012 (UTC)

"Correct" article is: http://www.plosone.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pone.0028964 - "Full" citation is: Citation: Fowler DW, Freedman EA, Scannella JB, Kambic RE (2011) The Predatory Ecology of Deinonychus and the Origin of Flapping in Birds. PLoS ONE 6(12): e28964. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0028964 --B. P. (talk) 21:35, 5 September 2012 (UTC)

That citation  I do not think is the correct, article it goes to is not matching up fully, this link was published in December 2011 though the rest of the citation appears to be correct.


162.158.62.159 12:22, 5 September 2017 (UTC)

Jurassic Park was not incorrect in the size of the raptors; it was incorrect in the *name* of them! The so-called velociraptors in the movie were actually Deinonychus, which did grow to about that size and had the same shape and form as the smaller velociraptor. 108.162.216.87 (talk) (please sign your comments with ~~~~)

There is no mention of velociraptors at this comic or explain. I have changed the category to dinosaurs. --Dgbrt (talk) 20:33, 28 April 2014 (UTC)

The video link seems to be DEAD. If anyone has the video or knows where it can be found, please... 141.101.79.139 (talk) (please sign your comments with ~~~~)

I think it's worth mentioning that the last part of the title text "And there's more of it every day!" is a fun way of stating that the history we can study becomes longer and therefore more interesting every day simply because every day another 24 hours is "added" to history. 162.158.90.210 (talk) (please sign your comments with ~~~~)

The video is no longer available, should we mention this in the explanation? Argis13 (talk) 01:54, 4 October 2019 (UTC)

The Explanation literally reads: "This video is now defunct, but you can still access it via the Wayback Machine." --Lupo (talk) 09:27, 4 October 2019 (UTC)


I clicked on the original comic, and got taken to YouTube, where I got the message Video unavailable. Whether it's inaccessible to everyone, or just where I live (New Zealand), I don't know. Koro Neil (talk) 22:26, 21 June 2021 (UTC)