#That chicken remembers being a dromaeosaur

[valerierowan]

LEG.

assumption: if you COULD have chickens, you'd go for a mixed flock for fun egg colors

FALSE:

I want a flock of Malay Game Chickens so I can simulate being hunted by the velociraptors from Jurassic Park in my own back yard:

[mineralsrocksandfossiltalks]

Fossil Friday: Six Foot Turkey

Remember that kid from Jurassic Park? The good one not the weird monster movies.

First, that kid has clearly never met a living turkey because they are huge and mean. They are often used to protect chicken coops.

Anyway, that is probably the most accurate scene involving Velociraptor in the whole franchise. The dinosaur really is about 6ft long and the size of a turkey.

Velociraptor belongs to the dromaeosaur family, of which the largest ones are found in North America (Utahraptor, Deinonychus). This family actually has a lot of similar bone structures to modern-day turkeys and others aves. The most obvious being the feet. Yes, dromaeosaurs have a specialized toe but like most ground-dwelling birds, he had three toes.

They also have a fairly similar wrist structure too.

Velociraptor also has a sclerotic ring which is a ring of bones around the eye to hold it in place. This is why birds, fish, amphibians, and reptiles move their whole head and not just their eyeballs: they can't.

And finally, they also possess a wishbone!

Hope you all had a good Thanksgiving!