Comment on Stocky Sue, Sans Feathers by Osmatar
well Yutyrannus and Dilong seem to disprove the idea of a scaly rex, plus the scale impressions were very small and far between.
I should also note that Elephants are not a good comparison when comparing to Tyrannosaurus because feathers are a very different thing from fur, and Yutyrannus seemed to be identical to the ones found on Emus; animals that do not need shade to cool off, but their feathers can...somehow. so no, the scaly movie monster Tyrannosaurus is gone. sorry!
I should also note that Elephants are not a good comparison when comparing to Tyrannosaurus because feathers are a very different thing from fur, and Yutyrannus seemed to be identical to the ones found on Emus; animals that do not need shade to cool off, but their feathers can...somehow. so no, the scaly movie monster Tyrannosaurus is gone. sorry!
Yutyrannus does not disprove a mostly featherless Tyrannosaurus any more than mammoths disprove mostly hairless African elephants. You have to rely on data from Tyrannosauroids to be sure. We also can't use modern ratites as direct analogues because they don't live in the Maastrichtian climate, they don't have Tyrannosauroid metabolisms, we don't know for sure their feathers are structurally the same as Tyrannosaur feathers and most importantly, they are tiny and lanky compared to Tyrannosauroids. Even in modern birds, which are comparatively diminutive, partial or complete loss of feathers in certain regions like the head and neck and the feet is common in warmer climates. The more volume an animal has in relation to its surface area, the more effort it takes for it to cool down.
Also mammoths and elephants are more related than t.rex and yutyrannus, elephant and mammoth belong to the same family.