Did Dino Meat Taste Like Chicken?
Probably not, and here's why
By Evann Gastaldo,  Newser Staff
Posted Oct 24, 2010 4:45 PM CDT
A young school girl stares at an animatronic dinosaur during a media call for the Walking with Dinosaurs arena spectacular in Sydney, Monday, Oct.18, 2010.   (AP Photo/Jeremy Piper)

(Newser) – Turns out T. Rexes liked to eat other T. Rexes—so the obvious next question is, what does a T. Rex taste like? Not like chicken, writes Brian Palmer on Slate. But birds are related to dinosaurs, and it’s probably another bird—the hawk—that dinosaur meat is closest to. Meat flavor is determined by more than just the evolutionary tree—eating habits, hormones, and muscle composition come into play, meaning it’s more likely that T. Rex meat would be similar to a carnivorous bird like the hawk.

So what does hawk meat taste like? Think a more pungent version of the dark meat portion of a turkey. Chickens have more white meat because of their “fast-twitch” muscles, which allow them to spend most of their time standing around, but occasionally flap their large breast muscles to get away. T. Rexes, on the other hand, would have had “slow-twitch” muscles to help with endurance—hence, dark meat. For more on the newly discovered T. Rex eating habits, click here.

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