Posted on 02/23/2006 6:41:48 AM PST by GreenFreeper
Chicken will grow teeth when pigs can fly.
Well, better start searching the skies for flying pork—scientists have discovered a mutant chicken with a full set of crocodile-like chompers.
The mutant chick, called Talpid, also had severe limb defects and died before hatching. It was discovered 50 years ago, but no one had ever examined its mouth until now.
The researchers recently created more Talpids by tweaking the genes of normal chickens to grow teeth.
"What we discovered were teeth similar to those of crocodiles—not surprising as birds are the closest living relatives of the reptile," said Mark Ferguson of the University of Manchester.
What happened
Around 300 million years ago, the ancestor of all modern vertebrates gave rise to two lineages, the mammals and the reptiles/birds. The oldest reptiles, such as crocodiles and alligators, had cone-shaped teeth. So did the earliest birds, called archosaurs.
Then, around 80 million years ago, modern birds emerged without teeth.
"So what would you expect bird teeth to look like? You would expect them to have teeth like their ancestors and their most closely related living relative," study co-author John Fallon of the University of Wisconsin told LiveScience.
Indeed, Talpid's teeth are conical, much like an archosaur's and closely resembling the teeth of a baby alligator or crocodile, Fallon said. If the chick survived, the teeth would most likely reabsorb into the mouth.
The archosaurs had mouths similar in shape to a reptile's. It turns out that developing a beak caused birds to lose their teeth.
"The reason that birds lost their teeth is that in forming a beak, the two tissues that ‘talk' to each other to make a tooth become separated," Fallon said. "They can't have the conversation to make a tooth. In the mutant, these tissues are brought back together."
Make more mutants
The finding made scientists curious whether healthy chickens still possessed the 80-million-year-old genetic pathway for producing teeth.
By making a few changes to the expression of certain molecules in the pathway, the researchers were able to induce tooth growth in normal developing chickens. These teeth also looked like reptilian teeth and shared many of the same genetic traits, supporting the scientists' hypothesis. None of these chickens were allowed to hatch.
This is all good news for hockey players. A direct application of this research, Ferguson said, could be re-growing teeth in people who have lost them through accident or disease.
The research is detailed this week in the journal Current Biology
Ah yes, another sucessful 'speciation.' (Not!)
The evos are on the run, and they will grasp at any straw! (remember the long-legged toads a few days ago? :o)
"Maybe the are arming up for a revolt against the human oppressors."
Man, I hope not! I raise laying hens as an extra income source. My hens are treated better than some children are, so I'm pretty sure they'll only kill me after they've killed off the rest of you, LOL! :)
However, I will check them for teeth later and report back.
Oops! Meant to add that chicken eggs are very useful in research of all kinds. They've used them to study fetal alcohol syndrome and a whole host of other human baby-in-utero related illnesses and defects.
A friend of mine is a Professor at the UW Research labs, and I visit his four huge chicken barns from time to time. He taught me how to hypnotize a chicken, which he does while he's giving some of his lectures. The chicken just lays there at his feet, staring off into space. How much more fun can you have than that? (They'll stay that way for about 30 minutes. They're not real bright...)
Congratulations! - You've just been accorded an honorary PhD from the University of PETA
"French special forces
adjust their glasses
as they prepare
to meet the rebels in Bouake. . ."
-------------------------------------------------------
(I'm ashamed. That was
a totally uncalled for
attack on the French,
but, well, you know, when
the title of a thread says
"chicken" someone must
do a French post and
I'm just doing my duty
as a good Freeper . . .)
My first job out of college was with a mosquito management company. In addition to taking blood samples from wild birds (tested for encephalitis etc.), we would set out chicken coops in the middle of woods and even in cities. We would let them get bitten by mosquitos and then take blood samples and test it. I can attest to the intelligence of chickens- not bright is an understatement. We would 'hypnotize' them by holding them by their feet and swinging them upside down for 15-20 seconds. This made getting blood samples much easier. I only did this for a summer but it took me about a year before I could eat chicken again.!
Sweet! I've been looking for something to line the chicken coops.
That's odd. One would think
chickens with teeth would compete
better than chickens
with just a bill, so
one would think evolution
would have selected
chickens with teeth as
the norm (over time) rather
than the plain old bird
if the genes are there
to make teeth in the first place.
A strange design choice . . .
Chickens are turning into alligators ... is that the thesis here? But we already have alligators, so why do chickens need to become alligators? Meat-eating chickens would be pretty scary ...
That totally makes sense I don't know why I didn't think of that. *slap "bad Reaper!"*
"Ah yes, another sucessful 'speciation.' (Not!)"
Evolution is, at best, speculation and nothing more.
But a dozen alligator-sized eggs for $1.25 sounds like a deal!
Keep trying, you're almost there.
Excellent point.
The way we do it is to hold the chicken for a while and pet it, so it's calm. Then you lay it on the floor (wood or cement is best) on it's side, and with your finger trace an imaginary line from the chicken's eye, away from them for a few feet. For some reason, they stare at the line your finger "drew" and they are zombie-like for about 30 minutes.
I do it to amuse City Kids who come out to the farm to buy eggs with their Moms. It's always a great hit, LOL!
Tancredo for President - YES !!!!
Evo's expect us to believe this is the way "evolution" worked ... or "works".
Yea. I get it now.
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