There's a new guy. A bit weird. Calls himself "Anonymous", for some reason. Whatever, dude. A bit egg-headed, like my best friend Twi. They talk a lot about this or that. I can't really keep up with their nerd talk. Recently, they've been talking a lot about these things called "fossils". Rocks that used to be bones... or something. Legends about cool monsters that don't exist anymore tends to get lame when you start throwing around nerd words like "Holotypes" or "Taxonomy".
I'm a weather pony, not a paleontologist, paleobotanist, paleo... anything. I just hope Anon doesn't get any weird ideas in his head.
Chapters (1)
This is completely demented and I could totally see it happening.
Taxonomy gets complicated when wizards get involved and start making things like gryphons.
Sorry to get technical on a comedy fic, but it's not completely certain that Pegasi have bird DNA in Canon, so the dinosaur lineage is murky. Convergent Evolution to get those wings is a thing too. Twilight doesn't understand Darwinian theory (or whatever pony pun names) if having physiological similarities means proof of ancestry.
Cladistics and genetics are better evidence for lineage in modern evolutionary theory. That said, bird DNA is possible if a being of extraordinary power (ahem Discord ahem) have some experimental shenanigans with ponies.
Edit:
MLP is set in generally late 19th century, so the theory is already decades old. Hence, academics and intellectuals on evolution should generally understand this premise, which Twilight lacks.
Also,
Shame that Twilight used Nepotism to submit flawed research.
Edit2:
I realized that Twilight could use magic BS to extract and compare bird and pegasi DNA. Then again, this fic didn't mention about molecular genetics, so I assumed this didn't happen.
11813485
What do you mean? The bird wings are right there.🫠
Man, I'm not sure there's going to be any functional difference between the bird wings of ponies and the bird wings of birds. You'd have to go over the sequence with a fine-toothed comb, I reckon. Even then, it'd look remarkably the same.
Also, petty nepotism is funny.
11813594
I'd doubt the result would be similar. Pegasi are like unholy fusion of bird wings and horse, so I don't know what eldritch abominations will spawn from electrophoresis
It could be just convergent evolution.
Still, Twi and Anon gushing and nerding over an exasperated RD is quite funny, I suppose.
I'm getting with the Pro-Dinosaur side.
Just for the lulz.