Big Bird

By Cernig

Chinese paleontologists have discovered the fossil of a flightless dinosaur with feathers on its long forelimbs and a beak - it's yet another missing link species between dinos and modern birds. But this one was a big turkey...

Eight meters (26 ft) long and standing at twice the height of a man at the shoulder, the fossil of the feathered but flightless Gigantoraptor erlianensis was found in the Erlian basin in Inner Mongolia, researchers wrote in the latest issue of Nature.

The researchers said the dinosaur, discovered in April 2005, weighed about 1.4 tonnes and lived some 85 million years ago.

According to lines of arrested growth detected on its bones, it died as a young adult in its 11th year of life.

Of course, according to 60% of Republicans (and 40% of Dems, yikes!), it was dropped overboard by Noah on his way past China to Australia. He had to make a right there to avoid falling of the edge of the earth, which is somewhere between Japan and Hawaii