[gasps] This is the most exciting news I've had all day.

So one of the things that's special about birds is they happen to be the only dinosaurs that survived to the present day, and T. rex is actually a fairly close relative of birds, but it's not a bird.

We don't have evidence that T. rex had feathers, but we have fossils of other dinosaurs that are close relatives of T. rex.

They include a Chinese dinosaur called Yutyrannus, and Yutyrannus is an exciting fossil discovery because the fossil preserves the fossilized skin and a covering of fur-like structures that are quite similar to feathers, and that we call protofeathers.

[upbeat music]

Can families still see the first fossils of the T. rex, Dr. Roger?

Barnum Brown discovered three skeletons of T. rex between 1902 and 1908, and some of those fossils are still in the American Museum of Natural History, including the most important specimen, which was found in 1908.

That fossil is important because it has the whole skull.

Why don't you tell me about that moment? And then I want to get to the idea of why then, how did birds survive that? You know, how did those, because I find that fascinating.

Yeah.

And I mean, scientifically, it's really fascinating too.

So our new exhibit at the American Museum of Natural History, everyone should come.

It's called Impact, the End of the Age of Dinosaurs.

And it's centered around this.

It's actually, it sort of, It defies belief somehow.

There seems to be some kind of connection there.