'Chicken From Hell' Unearthed In American Midwest 78
sciencehabit writes "A newly described dinosaur might look like a chicken, but don't be fooled: It was nearly 4 meters long, weighed about 250 kilograms, and lived 66 million years ago in what is today the Hell Creek rock formation in North and South Dakota. That's why its discoverers are calling it the 'chicken from hell,' and indeed it was related to early birds and to feathered, birdlike dinos that brooded over their nests, such as Oviraptor. The creature had a toothless beak, sharp claws, and a tall crest on top of its head. It is the largest Oviraptor-like dinosaur found in North America."
"Chicken from Hell" (Score:1)
Key to ending world hunger (Score:2, Funny)
If we can breed chickens and get them to shorten their hatch-to-slaughter time down to 21 days ( and getting shorter ), we should try resurrect this beast and start breeding them.
One of these weight 250KG, or equivalent of almost 150 chickens.
It would solve the world hunger problem in no time !
Re: (Score:1)
... we should try resurrect this beast and start breeding them...
What could possibly go wrong???
Re: (Score:2)
I want a drumstick!
Re: (Score:2)
Could give a whole new meaning to 'Buffalo Wings'.
Re: Key to ending world hunger (Score:4, Funny)
Re: (Score:2)
Cool, and they just decided to allow you to keep chickens and stuff in your yard here ;)
Think I am gonna need more lumber....
Re: (Score:1)
If you had been listening in biology class, then you would know that about 80-90% of the "food" is lost between every link in a food chain.
So, if people just ate the corn they would be getting a whole lot more food "for their buck".
And.. (Score:3, Funny)
Jesus rode it...
Gives new meaning... (Score:5, Funny)
... to the obligatory Far Side Eggs and baby [imgur.com] cartoon.
Re: (Score:2)
I was hoping for a sabre toothed chicken, as seen In the Chicken Museum [pinterest.com].
Re: (Score:2)
... to the obligatory Far Side Eggs and baby [imgur.com] cartoon.
Luckily they invented the fridge [pinterest.com], and it didn't take too long before it all ended for them
Re:so over 30 feet high and nearly a half ton (Score:5, Funny)
Nice try. I know math late at night might be hard.
4 meters = ~13 feet
250Kg = ~550 lbs. = ~1/4 ton
Must be a hunter or fisherman. "You should have seen the one that got away..."
Re: (Score:3)
Re: (Score:2)
You just need a bigger bag. Maybe it would fit into a goalie bag, after some processing if needed. I know you can fit tons of money in those:
http://www.goaliemonkey.com/eq... [goaliemonkey.com]
Re: (Score:2)
A 13 foot long, quarter ton chicken would NOT be the kind of animal I'd want to get angry. Or be anywhere near when it's hungry. Even though this article [plosone.org] says they were "ecological generalists that fed upon vegetation, small animals, and perhaps eggs." I wouldn't want to be the one to test whether this bird/dinosaur would decide to add people to its diet.
Re:so over 30 feet high and nearly a half ton (Score:4, Insightful)
A 13 foot long, quarter ton chicken would NOT be the kind of animal I'd want to get angry. Or be anywhere near when it's hungry. Even though this article [plosone.org] says they were "ecological generalists that fed upon vegetation, small animals, and perhaps eggs." I wouldn't want to be the one to test whether this bird/dinosaur would decide to add people to its diet.
For a sufficiently large bird, people are small animals!
I thought all dinosaurs were "chickens" (Score:1)
Wasn't it recently figured that most dinosaurs in fact had feathers? Or is this some secluded sect paleontology? In which case I can think of a number of favored dinosaurs that fit the bill of "chicken from hell" a lot better.
Re: (Score:2)
Hardly "most" though many of the later ones did.
Re: (Score:2)
Only most? Frankly, I can't think of a dinosaur in the last 65 million years that wasn't feathered...
Or were you only referring to pre-CT dinosaurs?
Re: (Score:1)
Wasn't it recently figured that most dinosaurs in fact had feathers? Or is this some secluded sect paleontology? In which case I can think of a number of favored dinosaurs that fit the bill of "chicken from hell" a lot better.
All dinosaurs started off as birds (there's still a lot of debate about this (die hards)), and evolved to what they were, this would be a stage in between. But I don't see any use for the feathers on it's arm unless they unfurled to make a bigger impression.
Re: (Score:3)
Wasn't it recently figured that most dinosaurs in fact had feathers? Or is this some secluded sect paleontology? In which case I can think of a number of favored dinosaurs that fit the bill of "chicken from hell" a lot better.
All dinosaurs started off as birds (there's still a lot of debate about this (die hards)), and evolved to what they were, this would be a stage in between. But I don't see any use for the feathers on it's arm unless they unfurled to make a bigger impression.
Ok I was wrong, just this weekend it was questioned so I spoke to my phone what came first the bird or dinosaur, and it came back the bird.
Well: "the idea that birds are derived dinosaurs, first championed by Huxley and later by Nopcsa and Ostrom, enjoys near-unanimous support among today's paleontologists." http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/O... [wikipedia.org]
The lesson learned, don't trust your phone for decent info.
Re:I thought all dinosaurs were "chickens" (Score:4, Insightful)
I don't see any use for the feathers on it's arm unless they unfurled to make a bigger impression.
Air braking, manoeuvrability & stabilization would be good uses. e.g. an ostrich can zig zag while running by sticking out its wings which might be useful if it's being chased by a predator or trying to catch prey.
Re: (Score:1)
There's a team trying to simulate dinosaur movement (Non-Avian Theropod Locomotion) by strapping artificial tails to chicken (paper+video):
http://www.plosone.org/article/info%3Adoi%2F10.1371%2Fjournal.pone.0088458
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
> But I don't see any use for the feathers on it's arm unless they unfurled to make a bigger impression.
Insulation I imagine, much like fur on mammals. In fact if you look at modern birds feathers are potentially far more efficient since their insulation properties can be changed to suit the situation, whereas you can't really "fluff up" fur.
Ah, but how did it taste? (Score:2)
But what did it taste like? (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Actually, it tasted more like wild ducks than farm raised ducks.
Madre de dios... (Score:1)
... es El Pollo Diablo!
http://miwiki.net/images/Elpollodiablo.jpg
did it have jet engines? (Score:3)
they probably found the remains of Ultra Mega Chicken [youtu.be] who was infact raised from the dead.
Madre de Dios! (Score:1)
Es "El Pollo Diablo"
My anecdote (Score:4, Informative)
I keep a few chickens. Little cute bantam chickens, fairly tame too. Currently 8, which is about the most I've ever had.
Observing these critters is quite interesting. For one, teaching them new things (e.g. drinking from chicken nipples, or walking up a plank to their roost when they are yet too small to fly up) is fairly easy and requires maybe one or two times of showing one, the rest soon follow. They may not be Einsteins, but they sure have more intelligence than often attributed to them.
The other thing is that they eat almost anything. I would occasionally see them running around with a mouse or frog that they caught, which would get eaten eventually. (Remember these are quite small birds, about half the size of what one normally thinks of as chicken size.) Observing that, I've often been glad that they aren't bigger. The neighbor's Rottweiler, on the other side of the 8' fence, wouldn't be safe either. Chicken from hell, indeed.
Birds can be vicious buggers (Score:5, Insightful)
I believe you about the chickens. Cocks - wait for all the 14 year olds to stop sniggering - can be quite vicious to each other. Now scale it up 10 times and you have a Cassowary - the most dangerous bird on the planet which has killed a number of people. There is a youtube video (too lazy to look for it) of a pair of them stalking some keepers in a zoo - quite frightening. Now take them and increase their size another 3 times and you have this dinosaur. I for one would not want to go anywhere near it.
Re: Birds can be vicious buggers (Score:3)
I'm 48 and sniggering.
Re: (Score:2)
14 year olds come in all age ranges.
Re: (Score:2)
Hens can be truly nasty when they have chicks to defend. Our landlord had a 40 kilo guard mutt named 'Rambo' who wouldn't even come to the back part of the lot because our little hen regularly pecked the shit out of his face every time he got near her chicks. Rosa sent me to bring one of the chicks and the mother gave me a nasty bruise on the lower eyelid (which was quite embarrassing to explain to my students).
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Some time back, there was an informative pair of pictures in an xkcd forum [xkcd.com]. Scan down for "but this" for the images.
There might be a way to include such a search string in a URL, but I don't know how to encode it ...
Re: (Score:2)
One question really (Score:2)
Could we deep fat fry them?
Chickens from Hell? (Score:2)
If they're anything like Pigeons from Hell [wikipedia.org], we're all screwed.
In related news ... (Score:2)
Dino Chicken TED talk (Score:1)
https://www.ted.com/talks/jack_horner_building_a_dinosaur_from_a_chicken
Chicken from Hell or Chocobo? (Score:2)
I am kind of surprised that I am apparently the only one that is thinking this sounds kind of like a Chocobo. I guess my brain was warped by too many Final Fantasy games in my youth.
If only we could recreate these and race them! Better yet, they could be the solution for the elimination of fossil fuel based personal ground transport. Who needs a Tesla when you have a Chocobo?
Re: (Score:2)
The only meaningful difference between a chocobo and an emu or ostrich is that a chocobo is cute, and apparently not aggressive at all.
Re: (Score:2)
I don't know. Barret was a pretty big guy. I'm not sure an ostrich or emu could successfully carry him, especially at speed. Also, I think the right chocobos could be much faster than an emu or ostrich considering how fast they could run across the veldt.
This actually sounds like a fun nerd debate topic: Is a chocobo just a friendly emu? Why or why not?!
In college I could probably have debated this with friends all night long.
Re: (Score:1)
When you find yourself in danger... (Score:2)
...
Caalll for Super Chicken!
Ba-buck!
Or maybe it's Baby Huey.
Re: (Score:2)
Perhaps it's more of a Psycho Chicken [youtube.com]?
WTF?
Apparently some of us have never seen and ostrich (Score:1)