Backyard dinosaurs

Feather Wilson

Do you raise chickens?

Chickens are the evolutionary progeny of Cretaceous dinosaurs. In other words a few small dinosaurs did survive the giant asteroid that smashed into Yucatan 65 million years ago and killed most of the dinosaurs.

In fact all birds evolved from dinosaurs. A few of these critters were covered with feathers.

Recent skull analysis by Harvard University paleontologists show that birds and chickens have the shape and form of baby dinosaurs as they develop in eggs.

So treat your chickens with the respect they deserve. When you fry those eggs in the morning, think about the fact that you are preparing to eat a baby dinosaur that evolved over the past 65 million years.

Modern birds mature 15-20 times as fast as baby dinosaurs, but body growth stops when their skulls resemble baby dinosaurs.

If you raise chickens, you soon find out they are omnivorous and will eat almost anything.

Have you ever studied the clawed feet of a chicken? Have you ever seen the fossil footprints of carnivore dinosaurs in Bandera County? There is a noticeable similarity to a very large chicken as shown in the illustration.

Don't let your chickens get too large or they may have you for lunch.

Feathered fossil dinosaurs are almost common in the geologic record. Many feathered impressions have been found in ancient lithified mud deposits.

If you do not raise chickens, take care not to run over them near the Silver Dollar Saloon on Main Street in downtown Bandera. They are not known to be beer drinkers. And you don't want them to start.