How do you make prehistoric buffalo wings?

First, you catch your Tyrannosaurus Rex!

I'm delighted to read of a study by Dr. John Asara and his colleagues at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center and Harvard Medical School in Boston, MA.

Dinosaurs may have been more closely related to chickens than reptiles, according to a report released on Thursday.

. . .

Molecular analysis, or genetic sequencing, of a 68-million-year-old Tyrannosaurus rex protein from the dinosaur's femur confirms that T. rex shares a common ancestry with chickens, ostriches, and to a lesser extent, alligators, scientists said.

“Last year we just made a very loose connection based on (protein) sequence identification and we had no reptiles," Asara said. "And now with very high probability we can make the connection of T. rex to birds."

. . .

"We determined that T. rex, in fact, grouped with birds--ostrich and chicken--better than any other organism that we studied," he said. "We also showed that it groups better with birds than modern reptiles, such as alligators and green anole lizards."

The mind boggles at the thought of a six- to seven-ton chicken, forty feet long from nose to tail, with a five-foot-long head, and jaws equipped with rows of jagged teeth!




Hmmm . . . I wonder how you deep-fry that sucker? Would Colonel Sanders' secret blend of eleven herbs and spices improve the flavor? How many serving-size pieces would KFC be able to cut from it?

(And just think of the meat on that drumstick!)



Peter