"chicken one day, feathers the next"

The concretion, found in Oregon, offers a potential glimpse into a world millions of years in the past, but the story offers an equally fascinating glimpse into the colorful world of paleontology.

"It's kind of like your first blind date," said state paleontologist Bill Orr. "The closer they get, the worse they look...."

We're waiting for Mother Nature to knock it off the wall," Hanshumaker said.

There's an expression in paleontology, Orr said, that describes the frustration involved in finding something that might be spectacular but really isn't that big of a deal.

"Chicken one day, feathers the next," he said. "This is definitely a feather day."

Here's hoping for a really cool chicken ancestor trapped in the middle of an ancient rock.