Slowly, the Cassowary Becomes a Dinosaur

Dinosaur-as-bird is a concept that I grew up with. I never had to be convinced of the truth of this theory, however I remember the first time I was blown away by the similarities between our feathery friends and the giants found in my research. For an article I was working on, I spent the day with Washington DC's local dinosaur expert, Dr. Peter Kranz at the family dinosaur camp he runs there. Kranz also heads a non-profit called the Dinosaur Fund and generally is the Dino-dude of the district. I described that initial come-to-raptor moment, experienced under the tutelage of Dr. Kranz, like this:

"The first stop on the zoo tour today is the Bird House, where Kranz takes the group quickly from bird to bird pointing out characteristics that demonstrate the bird’s connection with dinosaurs. If you look at the scaly legs and firm crested brow of New Zealand’s native Cassowary for long enough with Dr. Peter Kranz, the world around you shifts and you start to see a living, breathing dinosaur. You start to see how dinosaurs maybe moved like birds, had feet and claws like birds, maybe made sounds like birds. If you look too long, though, you may realize Kranz has moved along to the next bird, leaving you behind."  (I'll post the rest of this piece in the blog  for us all to learn about Dinosaur Camp).

I never looked at a bird the same way again (yes, that means I'm terrified of them). My favorite website, io9, recently posted an image that gave me another one of these moments. Although I know bird morphology phylogeny shout DINOSAUR, it is just not that often that I see the evidence this close:

That is the inspire-your-imagination and invade-your-nightmares claw of a Harpy Eagle. The witty commentators on the original post have a few other claws and paws to compare and share, too, so scroll down and join the conversation.

Remember that moment in Jurassic Park where Dr. Grant scares the hell out of the kid who doesn't understand the power of those clever girls? It wouldn't have been so hard to understand if that kid had ever come in contact with the Harpy.