Which Came First? – a poem by Kate Rauner

Feathered dinosaurs may have looked like this

Classic conundrums

Can be solved;

Ancestors laid eggs

Before chickens evolved.

And long before

Any bird flew,

Feathers evolved

More than we knew.

Lovely plumage,

Not just fluffy bits,

Completely covered

Archaeopteryx.

Long-shafted feathers

That never saw flight,

Spread wide in display,

Were a wondrous sight.

Thanks for a wonderful new fossil discussed at National Geographic. Archaeopteryx may be the best known, but is only one of many species of feathered dinosaurs and early birds; a vibrant evolutionary bush of life. Some early birds had enough feathers on their legs to be considered as “four winged”, and there is evidence of feather colors. “Of course, like any evolutionary story, this one could be falsified or complicated by the next cool discovery.”