Poems, Science

Tyrannasaurus Hex

43 Comments

A new scientific study suggests there was a parting of ways quite long ago dividing dinosaurs that were able to change quickly from those that were set in their ways.

The difference is this – the prehistoric behemoths who started shrinking rapidly eventually morphed into birds.

When a meteor struck Earth and changed the climate, the “bigs” were thrown off balance and began starving while those creatures who were smaller and lighter had a better chance at survival. Those that didn’t adapt or did so too slowly, were fated to perish.

I’ve struggled to imagine the dinosaurs-to-birds transition. In my mind’s eye I can put feathers on T. Rex, but I can’t picture him being chased away from the feeder by a squirrel.

So I asked Trail Baboon Poet Laureate Schuyler Tyler Wyler to pen a few lines to put this research in context. He deflected the compliment (as usual) and said the very gradual process of natural word selection that would lead to developing original verse on such a scientific topic could take years to complete.

But he could do it in ten minutes if he was allowed to steal a poem from someone else.

That wasn’t what I had in mind, but since the topic here is speedy adaptation to rapidly changing circumstances and time is short, I relented.

Forgive us, Edgar Allen Poe.

Back in the Cretaceous era, dinosaurs still roamed the Terra,
Many of them kept on doing what they’d always done before.
On they plodded, often napping. On occasion they heard flapping.
Lightly feathered flutters slapping, clapping many times and more.
Sounding nothing like the locomotion of a dinosaur.
They knew not what was in store.

One contingent started shrinking naturally and without thinking;
All the rest kept eating, eating, eating, eating, eating more;
Gorging on the food abundant, massive creatures turned redundant.
Every day another plate awash with calories galore.
Plumping up at every pore.

When the skies began to darken, many of the beasts did harken
Seeing that their kind was doomed some moped about, à la Eeyore.
Others, bent to problem solving, rather late, began evolving.
Well behind the group already changing – changing at their core.
Sprouting wings and hollow bones is rather an exhausting chore.
Transformation made them sore.

Dinosaurs becoming birds left some observers lost for words.
While others questioned feathers as an element of what they wore.
Why, they asked, would scaly creatures not retain their scaly features?
Turning into fish that swim instead of avians that soar?
Quoth the Raven: Albacore!

What was your most dramatic transition?

43 thoughts on “Tyrannasaurus Hex”

  1. Sorry for the late post, Baboons. STW is an artist, and poetry, even a ripoff like this one, can’t be rushed.

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  4. maybe to transition to an ex cigerette smoker was up there. i fluxuated from 2 to 3 packs of cowboy killers for a bout 30+ years. the transition to not doing that was a good choice but was a bitch. it isnt missing the prop it is the physical pain involved in the withdrwal. any idiot who gets into an addiction is in for it when it is time to join the other world of functioning people. its a foreign concept while you are in the midst of it. i really like recreational drugs but the idea of having a drug habbit to deal with has kept me on the straight and narrow. control is an issue i monitor enough to keep form losing it totally.

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  6. Every morning I transform from grumbling, surly bear-like creature to something approaching polite human. Some days the transition is longer than others. Some days I wish I could keep hibernating.

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  7. stw is a poet bloggers dream model but copying his copying drives me to the bottle
    dale calls him in to create a meaningful lead
    the baboons all enjoy his rhymes he gets them humming every time
    the blog post is in serious need of complete verse so dale does plead
    with stw cause poems dont grow like weeds

    stw starts in poet mode and writes a poem for baboons to load
    though many have a hard time deciphering its patter
    he writes until the damn things done, he finishs what hes begun
    he mixes up that poet batter he deals with the topics daily matter
    then retreats to enjoy baboon chatter

    thanks stw

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  8. Good morning. One transition that comes to mind is shedding my fear of doing things that would not be approved of by my parents. You might say this was not a dramatic transition because it happened over a fairly long period of time. However, it did make a dramatic difference in my life.

    At some point I finally felt free to do things that I knew my parents would not completely accept. I also learned that my parents did not expect me to do everything their way and would not reject me for following a path different from theirs.

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      1. Fascinating and almost all positive, Jacque. I loved my home (maybe a little bit too much), but now thrill to being a renter. You can love a colicky baby, but not getting up in the night is still no fun. I tried to be a responsible person when that was what I had to do, but being irresponsible suits me far more now. The sound track of my new life is the cacophony of children playing in the swimming pool that lies just outside my apartment. They are loud, those kids, and so happy.

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  10. Transitioning from being married to being separated and divorced was an unexpectedly traumatic experience for me. I say “unexpectedly” because divorce is so common that I had never considered how painful it could be. We had been in the Twin Cities only a little over a year – during which time the marriage was falling apart – so we hadn’t developed any friendships here; I literally knew no one here. I had been in my job only a few months, and had no idea what there was to do in the Twin Cities. I also didn’t have a clue where a single person could go to meet other people, make friends. It took me quite a while before I could pick up the pieces and move on. Two very difficult years of my adult life.

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      1. True enough, that, tim. But in my experience, changes that are thrust upon me are tougher to deal with than changes I choose. Even major changes have never really phased me when I was mentally prepared for them. It’s the ones that sneak up and whack me upside the head that throw me for a loop.

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  11. I’d say going from single career girl with a long distance sort of boyfriend to deeply and profoundly single mom was a bit of a challenge.

    I derive my unshakeable faith in list making and thinking on a yellow pad of legal paper to this experience.

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  12. Rise and get into that change, Baboons!

    There have been a few difficult transitions. However, the most dramatic was the breast cancer experience in 1990. The transition into thinking of myself as someone this could happen to–very hard. The first oncologist told me I was stage IV and I would die. I had to transition for several weeks into expecting treatment and death, leaving my 8 year old son behind. Then the tests arrived. Oops. Never mind. It was stage II. Estrogen dependent. Probably treatable. So then I would live. New transition into surgery and 6 months of chemotherapy. Then the Tamoxifen (cancer medication that intercepts the estrogen that fertilizes the metastatic cells) took me, at age 36 to menopause. Hot Flash city. That was also a rough transition, but I was willing to do it if I got to raise my son to adulthood.

    And I survived the drama. Here I am 24 years later–looking back at the drama. Phew. Dodged that bullet. For now.

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    1. I cannot possibly imagine going through that initial diagnosis with an 8-year-old to be cared for, then yanked back (albeit in the right direction) from the abyss.

      You are made of stern stuff, oh Jacque. I raise my glass of Heifeweiss to you with even more respect than I already had.

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  13. i am in the midst of transitioning from the business guy of the past through the death of a salesman era to the new entrapreneur. its exciting and a no looking back kind of path that is exhilerating and glorios. the new kids have no idea how cool it is to be abble to do what you can do today with the stuff available.
    youth is wasted on the young or however that its a wonderful life quote goes.
    i am looking at all tyhe energy in the room where i go toget recharged and it is a revitalizing transition.
    tally ho

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    1. “youth is wasted on the wrong people”.

      I do kinda love blowing away the s&h and his contemporaries with tales of the days (like say, about when they were born, ahem) when we had to do all sorts of things without Google, etc.

      I don’t scare them with tales of the days before you could fax or scan, they are still pretty young for that ;).

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  14. I’d say the most dramatic transition that I engineered was the move to California after college. To go from living on campus in Ames, IA, to apartment hunting in San Francisco was a stretch. Luckily I was not alone – my student teaching roommate was with me, and I had friends whose floor we camped on till we found a place. Let’s just say that first apartment was a learning experience.

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  15. TGitH – if you’re online this weekend….were you at LAFitness in Richfield Friday afternoon at about 5:30? I thought it was you but when I turned around, you were almost around the corner and I thought if it weren’t you, I would look pretty silly chasing you down the hall!

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  16. I think for me, it was becoming a dancer. My 60th birthday present ot myself was a divorce. Pretty nervy at 60 – eh? I’ve been hovering around 150 pounds for many years until then. When I divorced, I immediately lost 190 (his) and, after discovering my long held gift for free style dancing, lost 30# in about six months with no dieting at all.

    In all the years since, it’s long since become the center of my life. Who’d have thought that dancing would evolve into this? I sure didn’t. I”m now 107, an unhealthy weight, but it’s not due to the dancing.

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  17. Moving back to the US in 1986 after 6 years in Canada was Pretty dramatic. When I left, Carter was president. When I returned, Ronnie had taken over. It wasn’t pleasant. I suppose the transitions for us now are pretty dramatic. I think husband retiring and starting a consulting business is far more dramatic than moving my father here. At least I know my dad well. No surprises with him. Speaking of dinosaurs, dad and I went to the ND Heritage Center today to see the exhibits of dinosaurs and first nations. He really liked it. He feels a kinship with the dinosaurs.

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  18. I’ve always made it a point to avoid dramatic transitions. Going from vinyl to CD was pretty unsettling for me. The switch from analog to digital TV – pretty rocky. Not quite used to it yet. If I am ever expected to make big evolutionary changes to survive, I’m probably doomed.

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  19. A transition I have thought of since my original trite answer: from Anna Who Designs and Builds Sets to Anna Who Used to Design and Build sets. Grad school was the first step away from doing a lot of theater (hard to work full time, go to school part time and still have time to do more than a couple shows a year), then having a toddler in the house and a husband in graduate school was the final nail in the coffin. I built a couple small sets when Darling Daughter was in preschool and realized that I wasn’t willing to make the sacrifices I would need to make to really go back. So now I hear myself say, “I used to design and build sets…” and it feels strange saying and hearing the words, and sometimes wish that the phrase was still present tense, but in my heart of hearts know that it will very likely remain past tense, possibly forever.

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    1. I never thought I would play the bass guitar again, and it took more than 30 years for it to happen, but it happened. You never know. Wait until darling daughter gets into High School, and you may be surprised what happens.

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        2. I’m still not at the point where I can cleanly say, “I used to be a professional draper”- the draper is the lead technical person-takes the pretty (or not so pretty, depending on the designer) picture, a bunch of fabric and notions and a page with the performer’s measurements on it, and guides a team of about 3 people through the process of making what shows up on stage.

          Bonus points if the performer, designer, and director are all happy in the end. Crown in heaven if the construction team is too.

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  20. I’m in the process right now of transitioning from a tracfone to a smart phone. I figured it was a fair trade since, after the purchase price (fairly low for a smart phone), it costs me $10 monthly for unlimited text & talk. But woo-boy, it’s a different animal than my old tracfone. Yesterday, I managed to take an okay picture of one of the twins, and post it to Instagram for all my followers (three followers – my kids) to see AND shared it on Facebook – all from my phone. This is pretty darn good for me and I won’t mention the fact that it took me about half an hour or more today to figure out how to change my settings so my phone isn’t notifying me with chimes every time I get a new email or facebook notification. I also like the fact that I can speak my texts instead of “typing” them.

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