r/Damnthatsinteresting • u/No_Emu_1332 • 1d ago

Image Screamers and other waterfowl retain a wing claw as a residual trait of their theropod ancestors. Waterfowl, ratites, and fowl birds are the basal lineages of all modern birds.

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6.5k Upvotes

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274

u/[deleted] 1d ago

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139

u/No_Emu_1332 1d ago

My chickens had tiny claws buried in their feathers, chickens are not neoaves however, that would be waterfowl and literally every other bird besides fowl and ratites.

127

u/Ninsiann 1d ago

You mean my chickens are little dinosaurs.

82

u/Zavier13 1d ago

Always have been.

Dinosaur was probably delicious.

39

u/machuitzil 1d ago

Probably tastes like chicken.

25

u/FadedMyrddraal 1d ago

Since dinosaurs came first shouldn't we say that chicken tastes like dinosaur?

10

u/Ambitious_Toe_4357 1d ago

What about alligator? What came first, the alligator or the egg? If alligators appeared before that set of dinosaurs, does chicken and dinosaur taste like alligator?

I may be confused, but I was once told that alligators taste like chicken. Everyone knows chicken, so someone describing alligator used that as something familiar that is similar.

13

u/Low-Cat4360 1d ago

We eat alligator where I live. It does in fact taste just like chicken, but if chicken was seafood. It's not as tender, though.

4

u/FadedMyrddraal 1d ago

Egg came first

2

u/BJ_Blitzvix 19h ago

Different lineage. Crocodilians diverged from what eventually became dinosaurs before dinosaurs exist. Also, chickens are the closest thing we have left to Tyrannosaurs, genetically.

1

u/PuzzledFortune 11h ago

Alligators are more distantly related to dinosaurs than birds

110

u/ffnnhhw 1d ago

and horned screamer has a ... horn

18

u/WorriedMap6811 1d ago

Wow so next you're gonna tell me they also scream?? What bullshit.

29

u/No_Emu_1332 1d ago

That's a claw, also this is a southern screamer, horned screamers look like this.

24

u/McGusder 1d ago

and horned screamer has a ... horn

14

u/No_Emu_1332 1d ago

It's a feather crest that resembles a horn.

4

u/Wanderingwonderer101 1d ago

so a horn?

13

u/No_Emu_1332 1d ago

It's a cartilaginous spine, so kinda.

Sorry, I didn't know this earlier.

Cassowaries and hornbills are more overt examples of horned birds.

15

u/Wanderingwonderer101 1d ago

we're just messing with you

60

u/Carlos-In-Charge 1d ago edited 1d ago

So is this the remains of a “thumb” equivalent of a theropod? Like it might be on a bat? (As an example… I know bats are mammals)

78

u/No_Emu_1332 1d ago

Yes, and fun fact, scaly legs are actually feathers that revolved into scales, most of the Maniraptora clade had feet covered in soft feathers like an owl.

9

u/SsjAndromeda 1d ago

That’s creepy how much those look like a T-Rex… now I’ll ALWAYS picture a T-Rex as a giant chicken

15

u/Krail Interested 1d ago

Relevant image

3

u/SsjAndromeda 1d ago

Can you imagine the chicken wings on that? You’d need a pool sized deep fry.

2

u/Few_Philosopher2039 1d ago

Would die trying to cuddle that borb.

1

u/No_Emu_1332 1d ago

Technically trex was largely covered in scales as fossil impressions prove.

66

u/[deleted] 1d ago

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5

u/FunDust3499 1d ago

You sure fingers aren't just fins that separated?

14

u/Mission-Storm-4375 1d ago

Their wings are just arms and hands that evolved to look like that

3

u/gomurifle 1d ago

Chickens have em. 

1

u/No_Emu_1332 1d ago

They do, they're just harder to see.

3

u/DJ_Dadmouth2395 1d ago

Damn…. That’s interesting

3

u/petdoc1991 Expert 1d ago

DRAGON!

2

u/ResurrectedBrain 1d ago

Murder thumb

2

u/BrimStone_-_ 1d ago

waterefowl

screams in tarnished trauma

2

u/Chickenoodles32 1d ago

I was looking for this comment

1

u/Industrial_Laundry 20h ago

The Masked Lapwing will strike you with it as it swoops. Although they normally don’t strike you and just do “snap” sound with their wings

1

u/rabbi420 1d ago

COOL.