WINNER OF THE PEOPLE'S CHOICE AWARD, Inaugural Science As Art Exhibition at the Australian Science Communicators National Conference 2012
So often discussions of evolution are couched in term of a gradual climb to the height of human intelligence.
The evolution of birds from dinosaurs (and particularly chickens: Schweitzer has found that the chicken is T-Rex’s nearest living cousin and Jack Horner wants to retro-engineer a dinosaur from a chicken) forces us to consider evolution as a gradual change over time towards fitness and not toward bigger and better.
This is a variation on an illustration which appeared in a series of critical thinking animations exploring the theory behind logic and the methods science uses to develop knowledge. The Descent of Chicken represented the theory of evolution, standing in the place usually occupied by The Ascent of Man.