Dinosaur Files

Is it true that they just discovered that Dinosaurs were actually giant chickens?

If so, can you give a link to a picture of what it would look like?

Public Comments

1. No - they knew this a long while back. Here's some stuff from the wiki page Under phylogenetic taxonomy, dinosaurs are usually defined as all descendants of the most recent common ancestor of Triceratops and modern birds There is an almost universal consensus among paleontologists that birds are the descendants of theropod dinosaurs. Using the strict cladistical definition that all descendants of a single common ancestor are related, modern birds are dinosaurs and dinosaurs are, therefore, not extinct. Modern birds are classified by most paleontologists as belonging to the subgroup Maniraptora, which are coelurosaurs, which are theropods, which are saurischians, which are dinosaurs.[11] However, referring to birds as 'avian dinosaurs' and to all other dinosaurs as 'non-avian dinosaurs' is cumbersome. Birds are still referred to as birds, at least in popular usage and among ornithologists. It is also technically correct to refer to birds as a distinct group under the older Linnaean classification system, which accepts paraphyletic taxa that exclude some descendants of a single common ancestor. Paleontologists mostly use cladistics, which classifies birds as dinosaurs, but some biologists of the older generation do not. For clarity, this article will use 'dinosaur' as a synonym for 'non-avian dinosaur', and 'bird' as a synonym for 'avian dinosaur' (meaning any animal that evolved from the common ancestor of Archaeopteryx and modern birds). The term 'non-avian dinosaur' will be used for emphasis as needed.
2. Close but you got it backwards. They just found out a few months ago that chickens are actuall tiny dinosaurs.
3. jajajaja no!
4. They're not giant chickens. This is a story in the last few days where dinosaurs shared protein similarities with chickens. See the link below. The link between dinosaurs and birds is not new though as has long been believed that birds are descendants from reptiles of which dinosaurs were an early type.
5. no, they found out that some dinosaurs had feathers
6. No, this is nothing new. It's been known for quite some time -- but it's chickens that are actually tiny dinosaurs, not dinosaurs that were giant chickens. The dinosaur came first. Hmmm -- this sounds like the old chicken and egg routine.... There were many different types of dinosaurs, but as far as is known, none of them had feathers. That's a recent mutation.
7. well, chickens evolved from dinosaurs. Ther body structures are similar. i have looked for a picture to show you, but i have got no luck.
8. The above answers are right about it being the other way around. As to how they might've looked in light of this? Check out Luis Rey's gallery for some daring interpretations http://www.luisrey.ndtilda.co.uk/