Scientists discover 'chicken from Hell'

[Skywizard]

http://www.unexplained-mysteries.com/images/news_large/news-anzu-head.jpg
Anzu had a peculiar crest on the top of its head. Image Credit: CC BY-SA 2.0 Kabacchi


US scientists have announced the discovery of a new species of dinosaur. Its fossils offer further clues to how the dinosaurs became extinct 66 million years ago.

Anzu wyliei is a strange, bird-like creature that has a bony crest on top of a beaky head and a long tail like a lizard.

The animal was identified from the partial remains of three skeletons collected in North and South Dakota.

It is reported in PLoS ONE journal.

"We had inklings that there might be such a creature out there, but now with these bones we have 80% of the skeleton and can really look in detail at the structure of this animal and make inferences about its biology," says Hans Sues, curator of vertebrate palaeontology in the department of palaeobiology at the Smithsonian's National Museum of Natural History in Washington DC.

"Anzu is really bizarre, even by dinosaur standards.

"The skull has this extraordinarily tall and thin crest with a snout and a huge beak with sharp edges and a strange sliding jaw joint," that could be used to cut up vegetation and meat, he says.

The size of a small car, the dinosaur also had claws and feathers on its upper arms. It belongs to a group of dinosaurs known as Oviraptorosauria. Most evidence of their existence comes from fossils discovered in Central and East Asia.

The Anzu bones are the first detailed evidence that oviraptorosaurs also lived in North America.

The specimens were found in a geological formation known as Hell Creek, which has been extensively explored and is the source of many dinosaur fossils discovered in North America.

Scientists have nicknamed it "the chicken from Hell" because of its appearance and where it was found.



Full Story: http://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-26653799



peace...

[Forevernyt]

And the funny thing is, I've rendered something very similar many years ago, called the Chicken Raptor!
http://home.comcast.net/~forevernyt/chicken%20raptor.jpg

[Sidney]

I don't mean to disrespect your thread, but I happen to think it utterly disrespectful to call a potentially beautiful creature "from HELL". Just sayin.

[Cidersomerset]

I saw this item earlier.......

http://static.bbci.co.uk/frameworks/barlesque/2.60.1/desktop/3.5/img/blq-blocks_grey_alpha.png

19 March 2014 Last updated at 23:50

Scientists announce new dinosaur discovery By Jane O'Brien

BBC News, Washington

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The BBC's Jane O'Brien speaks to Smithsonian dinosaur expert Hans Sues about
the discovery of the "chicken from hell"US scientists have announced the discovery
of a new species of dinosaur. Its fossils offer further clues to how the dinosaurs
became extinct 66 million years ago.Anzu wyliei is a strange, bird-like creature that
has a bony crest on top of a beaky head and a long tail like a lizard. The animal
was identified from the partial remains of three skeletons collected in North and
South Dakota.

It is reported in PLoS ONE journal.

Smithsonian Institution

"We had inklings that there might be such a creature out there, but now with these
bones we have 80% of the skeleton and can really look in detail at the structure of
this animal and make inferences about its biology," says Hans Sues, curator of
vertebrate palaeontology in the department of palaeobiology at the Smithsonian's
National Museum of Natural History in Washington DC.

"Anzu is really bizarre, even by dinosaur standards.

"The skull has this extraordinarily tall and thin crest with a snout and a huge beak
with sharp edges and a strange sliding jaw joint," that could be used to cut up
vegetation and meat, he says.

Diverse communities

The size of a small car, the dinosaur also had claws and feathers on its upper arms.
It belongs to a group of dinosaurs known as Oviraptorosauria. Most evidence of
their existence comes from fossils discovered in Central and East Asia.

The Anzu bones are the first detailed evidence that oviraptorosaurs also lived in
North America.The specimens were found in a geological formation known as Hell
Creek, which has been extensively explored and is the source of many dinosaur f
ossils discovered in North America.

Scientists have nicknamed it "the chicken from Hell" because of its appearance and
where it was found.

The site is important because it was formed in the last two million years of the
Cretaceous Period, just before dinosaurs were wiped out by an asteroid strike.

Many researchers have argued that the dinosaurs were already in decline because
of climate change. But according to Dr Sues and his team, the discovery of Anzu
offers further proof that many species were still evolving and dinosaur communities
were diverse and flourishing.

http://news.bbcimg.co.uk/media/images/73596000/jpg/_73596695_nhb2013-00434.jpg

Skull The Anzu wyliei skull, shown in a reconstruction, featured a bony crest "This is
consistent with the idea that a mass extinction was caused by the great asteroid
impact 66 million years ago. It's clear that dinosaurs were still quite diverse until
the very end," says Dr Sues.

A thousand species of dinosaurs have been discovered so far. Scientists believe
there are many thousands more waiting to be identified, even in heavily excavated
formations such as Hell Creek.

The discovery of another species from the site was announced in December last
year - a small raptor called Acheroraptor temertyorum. And scientists have only
begun to explore potential dinosaur graves in Central Asia.

Bones in ground

But there's no magic formula for discovery, according to Tyler Lyson, who found
one of the Anzu skeletons in 2009 on his uncle's ranch in North Dakota.

"We were just walking along when we saw some dinosaur bones poking out of the
ground," he recalls.

"I knew right away that they belonged to a meat-eating dinosaur because meat-
eating dinosaurs have hollow bones, and these bones were hollow. We carefully
made a plaster jacket to wrap the specimen and get it back to the lab. After several
hours cleaning it, we knew we had found something new. It was unlike anything
else we had ever seen before."

Dr Lyson is part of the Smithsonian team and the founder of the Marmarth
Research Foundation, which promotes the study of fossils. He discovered his first
dinosaur bone when he was just six years old. The other two Anzu skeletons, which
include a skull, were discovered by private collectors.

"You just have to spend time out there," he says. "The bones come to the surface
and then break up into little pieces. You get a trail of broken bits of bone which you
follow, and if you're lucky you'll see bones sticking out of the side of the hill - and
that's exactly what we found here."

Although the Anzu skeletons were discovered several years ago, scientists work
in "deep time", says Dr Lyson. Bones have to be catalogued and compared with
other specimens while scientific evidence has to be peer-reviewed. It can take a
decade before any official announcement is made.

All three Anzu skeletons are housed at the Carnegie Museum of Natural History in
Pittsburgh, which collaborated with the Smithsonian to identify the new species.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-26653799

[Cidersomerset]

https://i.chzbgr.com/maxW500/3784764672/h643DBDFF/


I might need a bigger Gun !!

http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2009/02/24/article-0-03A5DBB3000005DC-379_468x286.jpg


The 500-Pound 'Chicken From Hell' Likely Ate Whatever It Wanted

http://media.npr.org/assets/img/2014/03/19/lamanna-et-al---media-art-1-mark-klingler-_custom-404f53a7510a8affe5a105b83793326875ab3646-s40-c85.jpg

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[MalteseKnight]

....it might have had feathers :p

[Cidersomerset]

....it might have had feathers


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[Ellisa]

One of the reasons it is called the Chicken from Hell is because it was found in Hell Creek (and it looks really scary!)

It looks very very unsettling in the first picture, where the eye in the skull is surrounded by a robotic-zombie-looking type metallic circle and its mouth is slightly open (all the better to eat you with). It looks a lot less scary in the second skull picture sent in by Cidersomerset. I am assuming that the second photo is the more accurate one--- well I hope it is!