From our great, wild west, those rusty, dusty hills,
Bones of a beast who would give a cowboy chills.
A fierce-looking crest – a mohawk made of bone!
Claws, beak, bony tail, locked within hard stone.
Heavy as a tiger, scary yet absurd;
Anzu, feathered giant: a dino, not-quite-bird.
Mysterious, its habits – egg-eaters? A chance.
But this terrifying creature may have also eaten plants.
We piece together dreams of the verdant late Cretaceous,
Shards, broken clues from the patient and tenacious.
How I wish I could’ve seen this dinosaur humungous;
I guess I’ll have to settle for their relatives among us!
______________________________________________
A New Large-Bodied Oviraptorosaurian Theropod Dinosaur from the Latest Cretaceous of Western North America, PLoS One, 3/19/14
Dinosaur dubbed ‘chicken from hell’ was armed and dangerous, The Guardian, 3/19/14
National Geographic, 3/19/14
Huffington Post, 3/19/14
This is one in a series of poems based on science news, written by Katherine Allen, a researcher in geochemistry and paleoclimate at the Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory. You can read more on Allen’s website.
Got to admit, they do look a like dont they.
They are ugly for sure 🙂
pretty scientific poem thanks , and yes they are ugly indeed. 🙂
Very nice poem lol I prefer the Chicken because I am bigger 🙂
Always imagined they would look more like they do on Jurassic park.
Will show these to my son, he loves dinasours!