Unexpected consequence of bringing back from the Mesozoic a rock with some stuff attached to it [duplicate]

Question

I read this short story at least 30 years ago, probably in a collection.

At the beginning of the story, some kind of "time machine" already exists. But it is not very efficient : it allows to look at a small area of the distant past as if through a spyglass, and sometimes to bring back objects.

Many laboratories have tried for a long time to understand better the science behind these "time machines" to improve their efficiency, got nowhere and finally gave up.

Only one solitary scientist is trying again and again both on the theoretical aspect, and at the same time trying to bring back whatever could help him to better understand the theory.

One day he happens to bring back from the Mesozoic a rock with a few roundish objects stuck to it : dinosaur eggs !

The eggs hatch and a few dinosaurs come out, males and females. Not big ones, fowl size. Birds are dinosaurs, after all, and those were not so very different from our birds, though definitely "mesozoic".

They breed, lay more eggs, and the scientist start raising quite a few of them, but his main interest is still improving the theory and use of the "time machines" but getting nowhere.

One day, one of the dinosaurs interferes with the "spyglass", destroying it while getting roasted in the process.

The smell of the roasted dinosaurs is delicious. The scientist and his family eat it and find it as good to the taste as to the smell.

He sells them to expensive restaurants and makes a fortune, since he has the only existing dinosaur herd.

But when he dies, though extremely rich, his deepest regret is that he has not managed to improve on the science of the "time machines".

Answer 1

This is Asimov's "A Statue for Father" (1959), first published in Satellite Science Fiction, but collected and frequently reprinted in Buy Jupiter and Other Stories.

Quoting the plot summary on Wikipedia:

A theoretical physicist and his son work on the theory of time travel, and experiment with a method of reaching back into time and retrieving objects (as also occurs in "The Ugly Little Boy" and "Button, Button").

More by serendipity than design, they manage to retrieve a nest of dinosaur eggs which in due course hatch. They keep on working but are unable to repeat the experiment. In the meantime, the dinosaurs grow and are kept as pets. But when one of them accidentally gets electrocuted, they can't resist tasting the flesh beneath the scales and find that it tastes delicious.

The two men decide to raise the dinosaurs to be killed for food and open the first of a successful chain of restaurants dedicated to serving "dinachicken.".

The ironic twist of the title is that the physicist is remembered not for his scientific achievements, but for his culinary discovery.