So my master's is in Botanical Illustration, not Paleontological Illustration, but I did Email this to my profs that would make redditors explode and they offered the following notes:
Overall: The vibes are immaculate, but Probably Not
We have some fossil evidence to suggest juvenile Rexes were downy, but adults were almost certainly not
Especially not like this, because sparrows are floofy because they're little animals that live in temperate climates with cold winters, and T-Rex was a Very Large Animal living in tropical climates. It did not need the insulation.
That's a pose a T-rex could strike but not it's natural habit. The artist has also fudged the proportions a bit, in a very plausible way so always double-check your measurements and reference sources to make sure you're not making stuff up
T-rex would have had no need for flight feathers like depicted on the wings and tail, and it comes from earlier in the evolutionary tree than flighted dinosaurs so it wouldn't have them vestigially either
It's extremely valid and compelling to consider how feathering might have radically changed the silhouettes, especially in terms of camouflage and insulation for some of the smaller and midsize dinosaurs
Patterning and cryptic camouflage are also very valid interpretations, even on a giant non-aquatic predator, because a ton of animals are paler on the underside
The little bright cheek puffs are something that might have shown up as skin pigmentation, esp given that Rexes had extremely good vision and probably fairly sociable so communicative coloration would be a very valid and reasonable choice
They think its very cute and funny and they're all emailing this image to each other and printing it to put it on office doors
gummygunk
ellievsbear
kaledo-art
jbbartram-illu
