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!
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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.
Will show these to my son, he loves dinasours!
Always imagined they would look more like they do on Jurassic park.
Very nice poem lol I prefer the Chicken because I am bigger 🙂
pretty scientific poem thanks , and yes they are ugly indeed. 🙂
They are ugly for sure 🙂
Got to admit, they do look a like dont they.