Chickens evolved from Tyrannosaurs

Modern chickens appears to have evolved from prehistoric predators tyrannosaurs, according to U.S. researchers. Researchers at Harvard University analyzed the molecules extracted from the fossilized bones of tyrannosaurs age of 68 million years, and found a close relationship between predator and current chickens.

Using a special technique called mass spectroscopy, they compared the collagen (the protein substance of connective tissue) of Tyrannosaurus rex with collagen of dozens of modern species of birds and animals, and found that at the molecular level tyrannosaurs much closer to the chickens and ostriches than to current alligators and lizards. "With the birds, chickens and ostriches, the relationship was closer than all the other species that we took," says Dr. John Asara. These preliminary results that require further confirmation, the second theory that some dinosaurs in the evolution turned into birds. "We can talk about this with a high degree of probability" said Dr. Chris Organ.

Previously, scientists from Harvard conducted similar experiments with the protein of the fossilized bones of a mastodon that lived 160,000 years ago. Analysis showed its similarity to modern elephants.










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