Although we remember dinosaurs many times as giant and fearsome creatures and it is common to find them more visually similar to animals like crocodiles or others reptiles, the fact is that they are more genetically similar to birds like chicken.
This has been proven by a study Harvard university, directed by Chris Organ, and published by Science Magazine In 2008. In this collagen for the femur Tyrannosaurus Rex, discovered in 2003 in an area between the states of Wyoming and Montana in the north of the United States, is 68 million years old, with 21 species of modern birds and crocodiles.
(It may interest you: How many Tyrannosaurus Rex are there? This is calculated by scientists)
The T. rex is considered one of the most popular dinosaurs in popular culture.
Analysis of proteins extracted from dinosaur bones confirmed that today’s birds are the closest descendant of T. rex, one of the most well-known dinosaurs in popular culture worldwide.
The agency stressed at the time that “these results confirm predictions made from anatomical observations of skeletons and represent the first molecular evidence of a link in species evolution between modern birds and a non-avian dinosaur.”
(Also: The fossil will help understand the origin of lizards and snakes)
Tests until that study showed only anatomical similarities between non-avian dinosaurs and birds. New molecular analyzes showed direct links with chickens, ostriches and, to a lesser extent, with crocodiles.
T. rex is a large carnivorous dinosaur that lived in what is now North America at the end of the Cretaceous period, between 70 and 65 million years BC. Its name means “tyrant lizard”, although in fact it has nothing to do with reptiles.
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