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Birds period are said to be direct descendants of dinosaurs due to an ankle bone seen in developing birds prior to hatching. This ankle bone disappears before the bird hatches and birds are the only existing animals to date that sport this ankle bone, which is a signature bone in dinosaur fossils.
The T.Rex protein samples are the oldest protein samples scientists have ever gotten their hands on and the only sequence of proteins of a dinosaur.
Jurassic Park could've used any grounded bird to simulate the velociraptor running...ostrich, emu, secretary bird, even the dodo if it were still in existance. Chickens would be a little easier to work with and favorable in size to create models. Though, it's very possible there's more than one dinosaur with such close genetic ties to specifically the chicken, but because of the lack of material to confirm such, it remains a simple thought and the T. Rex sample remains the genetic model that solidifies the theories and ideas of the evolution of dinosaurs to birds.
This also goes to show that some of these dinosaurs were able to survive the mass exinction that's said to have wiped out all of the dinosaurs 65 million years ago. Eventually, these survivors did fizzle out, but instead of literally dropping dead, they evolved into birds.
