Will your Thanksgiving table feature a modern relative of Tyrannosaurus Rex? The answer may surprise you.

Birds are dinosaurs: Lumen Learning shows the modern classification of Amniotes (vertebrates having an egg with an “amniote”.) In the lower right corner are Aves (all living birds), directly below two groups of dinosaurs. Some biologists declare that birds are dinosaurs, others insist they evolved from dinosaurs. The difference in views is merely semantic. Birds are dinosaurs.

Birds are cousins of T-Rex. Wikipedia posted this diagram of the evolution of dinosaurs. Birds are in the upper left, adjacent to the meat-eating dinosaurs containing Tyrannosaurus Rex and its cousins. These dinosaurs are the closest relatives of modern birds.

 

Turkeys are the oldest family of birds. Brittanica states that Galliforms (fowl-like or chicken-like) evolved from dinosaurs (possibly from T-Rex) earlier than other families of birds.

T-Rex probably had feathers. A Smithsonian Magazine article mentions a newly discovered dinosaur that appears to be closely related to T-Rex. It had feathers.

T-Rex also has a wishbone. LifeScience explains:

Where do turkeys come from? Ancient Mayans are believed to have domesticated the turkey over 2,000 years ago.

Where did the name “turkey” come from? The Atlantic describes the odd combination of events that resulted in the name. Turkey traded wild fowl from Africa to Europe, and the English called them “turkey coq”, or “turkey” for short. When turkeys arrived from North America, they used the same name.

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