In this article it is stated that some scientists found some more information to what a dinosaur might look like, such as the colors of the dinosaur. Some researchers found that a dinosaur called a Sinosauropteryx had a white and ginger striped tail. The way that these scientists were able to find the color of these dinosaurs is that in the fossils of certain dinosaurs they were able to find these melanosomes, pigment loaded sacs contained in feathers. The shape and the arrangement of the melanosomes help produce the color of feathers, so the scientists were able to figure out some of the basic colors of the dinosaurs by looking at and testing the melanosomes. Because of this discovery more scientists began to investigate the color of many different dinosaurs. Scientists identified some dinosaurs that they believed they could identify the color of because they would choose dinosaurs that’s fossils were covered with featherlike structures. For instance, the Sinosauropteryx had bristles on its skin so the scientists investigated and found that it had reddish and white rings along its tail. This research also may support research showing that birds are dinosaurs. Apparently they descended from a group of bipedal dinosaurs called theropods. Another group of scientists were also working on a similar project. They began to study a 150-million-year-old species called Anchiornis huxleyi, a “chicken sized theropod”. The researchers discovered melanosomes on a fossil of this theropod in 29 “poppy seed” sized chips taken from its body. From its melanosomes the scientists were able to discover that the Anchiornis “had a crown of reddish feathers surrounding dark gray ones, and its face was mottled with reddish and black spots. Its body was dark gray, but its limb feathers were white with black tips.” The color pattern of the Anchiornis was similar to that of some birds today. The scientist believed that the color scheme of the Anchiornis was so extravagant and was used for possibly attracting mates and escaping predators by possibly dazing them with the black and white limb feathers. “The researchers expect many more surprises as scientists look at other dinosaur fossils.”
This article is important to society in multiple ways. One way that it is important is that people are curious about the looks of dinosaurs and if birds could be descendants of dinosaurs. Another way that this article is important to society is that it just shows some of the evolution of different species, but also not very much has changed, older species and modern species are similar in many ways. This article is important to me because I am very interested in all of the characteristics of dinosaurs and the different kinds of evolution. I chose this article because when I saw the title it appealed to me and seemed interesting and when I read the article I was intrigued with the discoveries made by these researchers.
I feel that the way that this article was written was not as well written than it could have been. I also believe that the article does not go into enough detail on any of the species that it described. I think that he really just summarized in only telling the name of the dinosaur or bird, the name of the researchers and what the animal or bird may have looked like and it did not really go into great depth.
Carter did a particularly good job discussing this artivle. Fistly, the manner in which it was written was a way that everyone could understand it. He also thoughly discussed the process in which the scientists use to examine the fossils and gather information about the different species. Finally, Carter used details to keep the reader interested and have them leave, well informed. To make this review even better Carter would have discussed the articles importance in society a little bit more or explained where the fossils came from or just who exactly are the scientists. Before reading this review I had no idea that just from a fossil scientists can tell what color the creature might have been.
ReplyDeleteCarter’s article review was very interesting to read. He explained the ways that dinosaurs can be related to birds in a clear way so that I can envision it well. Also, the example of how the colors of birds can be linked with dinosaurs helped me see that it is possible that the colors of the feathers on birds can be related to dinosaurs. The way that Carter described a melanosomes made it clear and easy to read and gave more depth into what the scientist were testing with these pigments.
ReplyDeleteSome things this review can improve on are clearing up some words that are hard to understand without background knowledge. I was not sure what a bipedal dinosaur is, so I could not envision what a theropod is. Also, it would have been clearer if the review also gave some properties of how theropods and bipedal dinosaurs are and how they live.
One aspect that I was not aware of before I read the article was that scientists did not know how to judge a dinosaur’s color until now. I had thought before that scientists already knew how to do such things, but know I see that some areas in science are yet to be discovered, even something simple as the color of an organism. This article and review helped convey that importance of such an important achievement.
Three aspects of this article that I found extremely well written are when he discusses the types of dinosaurs. When he describes the Sinosauropteryx by talking about their “white and ginger striped tails. Another particularly well written aspect is when he describes the reason we can find the colors of feathered dinosaurs easier do to their melonosomes. And finally just the way in which he is so descriptive in his writing.
ReplyDeleteOne way that I believe he could made this better is if he had explained how the scientists find out the colors first then explained what colors some dinosaurs were. Another way he could have made this better is if he had told us a little bit more about what the scientists did with the melonosomes in order to find the colors.
One thing that I did learn by reading this article is that dinosaurs may have actually been colored. When I grew learning about dinosaurs I just thought they were all the same color some sort of greenish grey. Overall I liked this article a lot.
This current event was very interesting. Instead of talking about dinosaurs in general, Carter gave a clear picture on what they looked like. It is fascinating that birds could be possible descendants of dinosaurs. Also, seeing how evolution occured over the years is cool.
ReplyDeleteOne thing that could have made this current event better would have been more simplified terms. Some of the words I didn't really understand, such as theropod and melanosomes. Also, I'm still wondering how seeing featherlike structures on bones can lead to being able to tell what the color of the the dinosaur's feathers were.
Overall, Carter did an excellent current event and made dinosaurs a topic of interest for myself.
I thought Carter’s article Evidence Builds on Color of Dinosaurs was very interesting. He did an excellent job explaining the article in terms that not only scientists can understand. He also provided vivid detail about discoveries they have made about dinosaurs colors, which I believe are crucial to this article. It also taught me more about the color of dinosaurs. I thought that Carter did a good job in thoroughly explaining how, through melanosomes, we can discover the true colors of fossilized dinosaurs. The summary was very descriptive, and gave excellent details about the colors of the dinosaurs they have discovered.
ReplyDeleteI think Carter could have shortened his first paragraph to make it a little more manageable and readable. I also think he could have included more about scientists previous notions about the descendents of dinosaurs and when they came to the new idea that they may be more closely related to birds. I was very interested to learn that dinosaurs may actually be more closely related to birds, and to learn about the true colors of various dinosaurs, which I had always just assumed were gray or green.
The process used by these scientists was narrated quite well in this article. Each step was logically explained, and connected well to the next. It enables us as readers to envision the experiments the scientists conducted and their thought process while they administered this discovery. This does not directly involve the structure and content of the review, but I think the fact that Mr. Bond picked this article was a very good decision and should be acknowledged. As put in the article, “There is a big chapter of dinosaur biology that we can open up now,” and all mentioned in the article were very enthusiastic about the implications of these discoveries. This greatly improved the importance of this review. Lastly, I think the review was very effective, as it summed up the article without rewriting it, and included the right amount of detail.
ReplyDeleteOne thing I believe could’ve improved the review is if terms and definitions were defined and explained more. As beginning scientists, we as a class don’t have the scientific vocabulary that those who write articles such as this would. For example, I do not totally understand the nature of melanosomes, which were mentioned multiple times throughout the article and were a key part of the hypotheses involving the color of the dinosaur. Another aspect of the article that could’ve been improved is the section explaining why this is important to us today. I believe this could have been elucidated and elaborated more, and other, more relevant reasons could’ve have been presented. For instance, I believe summarizing and explaining the relationship between this discovery and the effect on evolution and on us today would’ve turned a good review into a great one.
Before reading this article and review, I was one of the many who pictured dinosaurs as green and brown reptilian creatures that had no influence on us today. However, now I realize the great range in types of dinosaurs, and that there were very abstract ones, like those with bright-colored feathers. Also, I thought the dinosaurs had totally died out, and left nothing that linked to us today, but this review and article showed me that some modern day creatures evolved from them.
I enjoyed reading Carter's review of the New York Times Article "Evidence Builds on Color of Dinosaurs." He did a very good job of summarizing most of the recent breakthroughs scientists have made in investigating the colors of dinosaurs in the first paragraph of his review. I liked how he described the dinosaurs' colors very descriptively, and his thoughts on how the article was important to society were very well-developed and especially relevant due to Charles Darwin‘s birthday in six days. Early scientists like Darwin would be fascinated by how the abilities of science have advanced exponentially over the years, and that scientists are now able to find the color of dinosaurs who have been dead for millions of years just by examining their fossils.
ReplyDeleteGetting back to the review, I think Carter probably could have paraphrased some sections of the article instead of using unnecessary quotes in his summary. I would have liked it if Carter went into more detail about other physical features of the dinosaurs besides color, such as bone structure, and how they relate to modern birds. Also, I would be interested in how exactly the placement of melanosomes determine the color of dinosaurs. Carl Zimmer, however, didn't discuss those things much either himself in the original article.
It was fascinating to read how dinosaurs may have actually been very colorful, as most depictions of dinosaurs I had seen (the Land Before Time movies, for example) pictured them as mostly brown or green and reptilian, while it now seems as though they actually come in all the colors of the rainbow and that some were probably more similar to parrots than to lizards.
Carter chose to summarize the article Evidence Builds on Color of Dinosaurs and there are several things that I think that Carter did well. One thing that I think Carter did well was that he gave several examples of the different dinosaurs and explained in good detail their coloring. Carter could have just stated the names of the dinosaurs without going into detail about their coloring. Carter also gave a good amount of background information on the scientific terms in the article. One example of a scientific term that Carter described was melanosomes. If carter did not define what melanosomes were I would have been very confused throughout the article and would not have known what he meant when he referred to them again later in the article. A final thing that I thought that Carter did well was that he told the scientists’ views on why they thought the dinosaurs had that coloring. Carter could have chosen not to have included the scientist’s opinions but that would have made the review not as enjoyable to read.
ReplyDeleteWhile Carter’s review of the article Evidence Builds on Color of Dinosaurs was well presented there were two things that I though he could have done to improve it. Perhaps he could have proof read more carefully so that it would have been better to read. There were several sentences where there were typing mistakes and the sentences sounded awkward. Also Carter could have gone into greater detail about the dinosaurs, although he described their coloring well. The original article did not go into great detail about the dinosaurs background, he could have looked up the information to make the article more enjoyable.
One thing that I learned from Carter’s article was that scientists did not know the actual color of the dinosaurs and were just guessing that they were brown, grey and green. I had always assumed that scientist had known that the color of dinosaurs had been brown, grey, and green. If it were not for Carter’s article I would have had that false assumption. Overall I think that Carter did good job reviewing the article.
I enjoyed reading Carter’s review of Evidence Builds on Color of Dinosaurs. Carter did an excellent job of describing clearly where the melanosomes are located on the dinosaurs. He also described the ways in which present day birds could be descendents of dinosaurs. I also thought that Carter kept the reader interested because usually I would get bored of this kind of article but his review kept my interest. Finally the way Carter wrote the article in a way so everyone can understand what the article is about.
ReplyDeleteOne part that I think Carter could have improved on is that he could have been more descriptive of the ways birds could be descendents of dinosaurs. I thought that Carter could have been more in depth of describing the physical features of the dinosaurs so I could envision the dinosaurs while he was talking about it. He also could have explained what a “chicken sized theropod” is because I did not know what that is so I could not visualize what he was talking about.
After reading Carter’s review I learned that dinosaurs are not only green, gray, and reptile like and that dinosaurs have bright colored feathers because prior to reading Carter’s review I thought that dinosaurs were reptile like because of the stereotype and the way dinosaurs are portrayed in movies and TV shows. I also found it interesting that scientists just found out how to specify colors on dinosaurs. Overall Carter did a great job reviewing the article.
Carter did an excellent job reviewing Evidence Builds on Color Dinosaurs. He made very clear what and where melanosomes were located on dinosaurs. He also made a clear connection to birds today and dinosaurs that might have been harder to see otherwise. Finally, Carter presented this review in a way that was easy for everyone to understand. One thing that he could have improved upon was going into a little more description about certain types of dinosaurs such as “theropods.” Also he might have been able to shorten his first paragraph a little more, and make it more understandable. Overall, Carter did a great job, and I had never known before this that birds are or even could be related to dinosaurs.
ReplyDelete