And Now A "Bird-Dinosaur" From North Dakota -- Vaguely Related To The Bakken, I Suppose (Or Not)

The Los Angeles Times is reporting:

A dinosaur nicknamed the "chicken from hell" was described by a team of paleontologists in a study released Wednesday, and researchers say it is even weirder then they first imagined.

The dinosaur's official name is Anzu wyliei, but it was nicknamed the chicken from hell because it reminded researchers of a giant clawed chicken with a neck like an ostrich. 

And from North Dakota.

The dinosaur had a rounded crest on its head and a long, strong tail. Its jaws were tipped by a toothless beak, and it was probably covered in feathers.

The description of Anzu wyliei comes from three fossils found in North and South Dakota that together make an almost complete skeleton. The fossils were discovered in rock that is about 66 million years old, which means Anzu wyliei lived at the tail end of the age of dinosaurs, at the same time as the T-rex and stegosaurus.

And where was it found?

But perhaps the coolest part of this find is that it was made in the Hell Creek Formation, one of the most picked-over areas of the world for dinosaur fossils.

"The fact that this big, distinctive, very weird-looking animal remained effectively hidden in one of the best-explored set of rocks shows you how much more out there is left to be found," Lamanna said.