The Questions…
1. Based on studies of collagen in bones, what two present-day bird species are most closely related to Tyrannosaurus rex?
2. More greeting cards are sold at Christmas than at any other holiday. What holiday is in second place?
3. The first six Star Wars films all were released in the same month. Which month?
4. The explorer Ponce de Leon gave Florida its name in 1513. The word comes from the Spanish florido, which means what?
5. The human population of Australia is 24 million. What is the kangaroo population?
The Answers…
1. Chickens and ostriches.
2. Valentine’s Day.
3. The six films of the original trilogy and the prequel trilogy were released in May. The films of the sequel trilogy, under Disney, were released in December.
4. Flowery.
5. About 44 million. The number has doubled in the last six years. The government wants people to eat more kangaroo meat, but most Aussies are turned off by that. They favor programs to sterilize and relocate the animals.


That’s pretty interesting. I just tried out a project using instructions online where a collagen protein sequence was identified and when we searched against the protein databases, the closest hit was the humble chicken (Gallus gallus) and next it was the Norway Rat! I documented the steps in my post https://geneinquirer.com/2020/12/15/in-search-of-dinosaurs-cousins-via-dna/.
Impressive. I admire your commitment.