Velociraptor had feathers?

i liked "testable hypothesis" better, myself. and now "confirmed hypothesis."another small victory for evolution.

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archaeopteryx lithographica appears to either be, or be closely related to basal deinonychosaurs. which places it well inside maniraptora, meaning that everything we see with feathers today is a "raptor."the idea about velociraptor mongoliensis having feathers isn't new, by any stretch. greg paul predicted it 20 years ago (in his eyes, every small theropod seems to have had feathers). and because of its close relationship with things like microraptor gui, it's been widely accepted for the last 5-10 years that v. mongoliensis probably had feathers too.still, this is by far the coolest news i've heard in months.Edited by arachnophilia, : No reason given.

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err, no, what i mean is that they evolutionary relationship (as described above) predict that velociraptor, as a small very bird-like dinosaur, would have feathers. it does. the prediction was made, and confirmed.i agree, it's not THAT significant, but it is another, well, feather in evolution's cap.

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