Nice article indeed. There are actually less feathered species than I expected.
It reminded me of one of my favourite article about how dinosaurs are drawn [1]. Two paleoartists draw modern animals like Hollywood draws dinosaurs. It was eyes opening to me. We mostly have skeletons of dinausors but fat and soft tissues play a very important role in how animals look.
I also think - when people ask- "but how did Tyrannosaurs manage with such stupid little arms" - just how well birds can manipulate objects (and in the case of some corvids, tools) with just two feet and a lipless pointy beak. Ever watch a parrot peel the skin off a grape? I've never managed that even with the advantage of opposing thumbs.
In fact modern birds are my favourite dinosaur-like things.
Not just birds -- humans who were born with no arms learn to become dextrous enough with their legs and feet to where they can cook, paint, operate a computer and even drive a car almost as well as if they'd had all four limbs.
T. rex got along just fine with its stumpy little kiwi-bird wings.
But dinosaurs were modeled after lizards and reptiles, not mammals. And looking at their most related living descendants, birds and crocodiles, I think popular illustrations are close to reality.
It reminded me of one of my favourite article about how dinosaurs are drawn [1]. Two paleoartists draw modern animals like Hollywood draws dinosaurs. It was eyes opening to me. We mostly have skeletons of dinausors but fat and soft tissues play a very important role in how animals look.
[1] https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/natashaumer/dinosaur-an...