>>713132034
yeah, the argument, a weak one, for tyrannosaurus rex, and its close relatives like tarbosaurus, daspletosaurus, the other tyrannosaurs of the late cretaceous, is from yutyrannus. it's an early cretaceous tyrannosauroid, a superfamily that covers a lot of time into the early jurassic. yutyrannus was from about 125 million years ago and could get to maybe 1.5 tons. that's nearly 60 million years of separation and a drastically lower weight compared to the 8+ a tyrannosaurus rex could get to. feathers are just going to overheat something that big.
there's plenty of scale evidence on tarbosaurus, gorgosaurus, daspletosaurus,albertosaurus and tyrannosaurus rex but since there isn't a complete skin cast people will still push feathers on those dinosaurs.
the largest coelurosaur that probably had feathers is therizinosaurus but there's no actual evidence of it. it was a maniraptora and the name gives away that it's more related to birds but it also has no actual evidence of feathering on its own. it had basal relatives with feathers and practically every maniraptora that shows skin impressions shows evidence of feathering so it's more likely. its size probably meant it had to have reduced feathering compared to its very small relatives because it would still get to around 5 tons. it wasn't a typical large theropod predator and its climate was a good bit colder than late cretaceous laramidia so it may have been able to better handle feathers
