http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070412/ap_on_sc/t_rex_birds;_ylt=AvyqT13BAcIyWU0LquqnmFPMWM0F
Years ago the connection between birds and dinos was made. It was based on the bone and hip structure similarities. The evolution from dinos to birds was a long and gradual change. Now we have proteins collected from soft tissue of a T rex being decoded. The closest match is todays chicken.
So go to KFC and order a bucket of Trex and a side of triceratops.
No debate, and not even a question.
An interesting observation that would be most comfortable in MPSIMS.
The importance behind this particular bit of news isn’t really the whole dino-bird link (it’s just one more piece of evidence in the already-substantial pile); it’s the fact that fossilization doesn’t really destroy the whole organism in the process (it had previously been thought that there would be nothing left of the original material [except in very unusual circumstances], and that all you really had left was just rock). As such, it opens up a whole now realm of possibilities involving the DNA analysis of numerous extinct forms – not just the recently extinct, like dodos or mastadons, but even long-gone critters like dinosaurs or possibly even earlier.
From the article in the Times on this, they were able to identify proteins, not DNA specifically. The bone was a very large one, buried under 70 feet of rock in Montana, and I believe covered almost instantly, so this was a best case.
Still very exciting.