Palaeoart & Speculation

Question 1

Maya is looking at a museum model of a Triceratops and wonders which features scientists can be sure about from fossils and which features are imagined. Which statement most accurately reflects this?

Accepted Answer

Scientists are certain about the shape of its skull and horns because those are seen in fossils, but the exact colour of its skin and whether it had spots are guesses.

Answer

Scientists know the dinosaur's exact skin colour because pigment cells are preserved in the fossils, but they are unsure about the size of its horns.

Answer

Scientists have found complete skin and feather fossils for this dinosaur, so both its skeleton and coat are known.

Answer

The dinosaur's diet can be told from its teeth, but we cannot tell anything about its bones.

Question 2

A museum team is building a life‑size model of the dinosaur Edmontosaurus. They have a complete skeleton, a few tiny skin impressions that show a rough texture, and a chemical hint that a distant relative might have had reddish pigment. Which statement about the model’s features is most scientifically sound?

Accepted Answer

We can base the model’s size, bone shape, and the rough skin texture on the fossils we have, but we must treat the dinosaur’s exact color or pattern as a guess because the evidence only hints at possible pigments.

Answer

Since a modern crocodile is green, the Edmontosaurus must have been bright green all over.

Answer

Because the fossils show smooth bones, the dinosaur’s skin must have been smooth and shiny.

Answer

The tiny skin impressions tell us exactly what colors the dinosaur had, so we can paint the model with bright purple stripes.

Question 3

A science book shows two pictures of the dinosaur Microraptor. The picture from the 1990s shows it with smooth, scaly skin, while the picture from 2021 shows it covered in simple feather-like hairs. Which statement best explains why the later illustration looks different?

Accepted Answer

New fossils were found that preserved tiny feather impressions on Microraptor’s forearm and ankle, so scientists added feathers to the reconstruction.

Answer

Scientists learned that Microraptor lived in a dark forest, so they gave it bright colors in the newer picture to make it more dramatic.

Answer

Recent bone discoveries showed Microraptor’s skeleton was actually twice as long as previously thought, so the newer drawing had to be larger.

Answer

Because no soft tissues ever fossilize, the newer picture is just an artist’s guess that Microraptor might have had feathers.

Try three questions

Maya is looking at a museum model of a Triceratops and wonders which features scientists can be sure about from fossils and which features are imagined. Which statement most accurately reflects this?

A science book shows two pictures of the dinosaur Microraptor. The picture from the 1990s shows it with smooth, scaly skin, while the picture from 2021 shows it covered in simple feather-like hairs. Which statement best explains why the later illustration looks different?

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