Sequencing proteins from a 68 million-year-old leg bone from a T. rex, scientists have learned that what they were actually looking at — was a drumstick!
Comparing sequences of proteins with other animals it was discovered that the closest living relative to the T. rex was practically right under our noses all along, in the refrigerator aisle, and on dinner plates the world over, dressed in a variety of cunning disguises from coconut curry to cacciatore.
Ladies and gentlemen, may I present the humble chicken.
Oh, how the mighty have fallen.
This revelation is amazing, amusing, and a little disappointing; rather like pulling back the curtain of the Great and Powerful Oz and finding a pudgy little man from Kansas. Still, this brings an answer to the great philosophical question;
Which came first, the chicken or the egg?
It would be the egg, laid by an ancestor who was more reptilian than avian.
According to the UK Guardian, study of a 68 million-year-old leg bone of a T. rex, unearthed in 2003 in Montana by Dr. Mary Schweitzer, a paleontologist at North Carolina State University and the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences, revealed that it still had collagen fibers which could be analyzed. Collagen is a protein that allows bone to have flexibility and structure.
Scientists at Harvard University's Medical Center used advanced medical technology normally used for analyzing human cancers to study the T. rex bone collagen matrix. Seven different proteins were extracted, sequenced, and compared to other animals living today.
The scientists discovered that T. rex protein make-up is indistinguishable from a modern chicken's. Dr. Angela Milner, the associate keeper of paleontology at the Natural History Museum in London concurs, "This corroborates a huge body of evidence from the fossil records that demonstrates the birds are descended from meat-eating dinosaurs."
So, for all the veggies mad to defend the buttery chickens, think about this. If times were reversed, you would be running for your life from T. rex, who wouldn’t consider you anything but a tasty morsel it needed to survive – and it would dispense with the spicy Vindaloo.
Article comments
1 - Matthew T. Sussman
So Jurassic Park was really an attempt at an interactive buffet?
2 - Deano
Mmmmmm...T-rex....mmmmmmm
3 - Ashtoreth
An interactive buffet... You are too funny Mathew. ;)
Except the buffet would be... us.
Eating drumsticks will never be the same LOL.
4 - bliffle
I thought evolutionists decided some time ago that the egg was preceded by proto-chicken, thus the egg came before chicken.
Of course, the godly might make the etymological argument that there can be no chicken egg if there is no chicken, thus the chicken came first. Must have been made by god, then.
5 - Ray Ellis
Rhetorical questions don't require answers, Bliffle. In fact, they'll make you nuts. Have you ever tried to figure out the origin of God?
6 - Ashtoreth
Greetings from San Francisco,all.
I am typing on this crochity old lap top in a hotel just up from Union Square.
This lap top is Jurassic! ;)
7 - Ashtoreth
For any of you coming to San Francisco...
I was lookig through a local green guide called Greenopia - This is a great reference whether you are a veggie or an omnivore.
Relevent to this article, I was tickled to find: T-Rex Barbeque (which earned two green leaves). It is located at 1300 10th St. Berkeley 94710 510-527-0099. Greenopia describes it as, "Traditional bbq with a green twist. House smoked, grilled, and cured all-organic, free-range meats. Local organic produce."