Randy’s Chicken Blog: The Tenth Anniversary — Randy’s Chicken Blog

“Are chickens directly descended from T. rex? Isn’t it true that they’re the closest living relative to T. rex? Because Tyrannosaurus rex was really, like, a big chicken, right? And so, chickens are pretty much just dinosaurs, right?”

You’ve probably run into the chicken/dino question. Everybody has. If we turn to the great, wise internet for answers to those questions, it’s quite possible that we’ll wind up on a site that gives bad/wrong information.

After a lot of research and reading, I wrote my chicken/dino article in 2018. Are Chickens Dinosaurs is short and to the point and explains that practically every expert in the field has concluded that chickens really are dinosaurs—as are all birds. And, nope, chickens are not the closest living relative to T. rex.

This article has garnered a lot of traffic, has been linked here and there, and has generated its share of correspondence, comments and questions. One of my favorite comments from a skeptic: “I’d appreciate some kind of source or reference as to where you got the information that chickens are dinosaurs. Like, did you hear it from your Uncle Joey?”

The truth is, for anybody else who is wondering, I don’t post a bibliography with my articles, but I would happily provide one to anyone who asks.

For example, one reference for my declaration that all birds are dinosaurs is the 1997 book, The Mistaken Extinction: Dinosaur Evolution and the Origin of Bird by paleontologists Lowell Dingus and Timothy Rowe. Within the pages of this book the authors succinctly state that “…birds are avialian, maniraptoran, coelurosaurian, tetanurine, theropod, saurischian dinosaurs.”

You don’t need to look up all those twenty-five-dollar words. The important words in that sentence are the first two and the last. Most scientists are now firmly on the same page regarding the bird/dinosaur connection. There is still the odd dissenting scientist, but those who subscribe to the bird-dinosaur link are a pretty impressive bunch. As a group, they have more degrees than a thermometer. A really big thermometer!

My conclusion that chickens are not the closest living relative of T. rex is a little more complicated. I wrote two follow-up pieces in 2024 just to answer that single question. Are Chickens the Closest Living Relative of T. Rex? No! And Here’s Why They Are Not and Are Chickens the Closest Living Relative of T. rex? No! And Here’s Where That Rumor Started are each much longer than the original chicken/dino article but both continue to generate a lot of pageviews.

True confession: All the dino stuff is only peripherally about chickens. And this is supposed to be a chicken blog. But I found it to be a pretty interesting rabbit hole, and the pageview numbers indicate that other people do too. And, come on—it’s dinosaurs!