What's the deep history of birdiness?

May 13, 2015 12:53 PM

Scientists say they have reversed a bit of bird evolution in the lab and re-created a dinosaurlike snout in developing chickens.
posted by curious nu (27 comments total)

Missing 'jurrassicpark' tag
posted by showbiz_liz at 12:54 PM on May 13, 2015 [6 favorites]

Hold on to your butts.
posted by Drinky Die at 12:56 PM on May 13, 2015 [12 favorites]

But don't expect the scientists to create lab-grown dinosaurs — that would be a whole lot harder than just trying to restore some of the traits that existed in the first birds.

But it's a start, goddammit!
posted by Faint of Butt at 1:00 PM on May 13, 2015 [4 favorites]

Now if they can just get a dinochick to lay an egg, we can put that whole other nonsense to rest.
posted by bonehead at 1:02 PM on May 13, 2015 [1 favorite]

Any word on the technology used? Is it a UNIX system?
posted by spikeleemajortomdickandharryconnickjrmints at 1:03 PM on May 13, 2015 [17 favorites]

"Oh, yeah. Oooh, ahhh, that's how it always starts. Then later there's running and um, screaming."
-Dr. Ian Malcolm, Jurassic Park
posted by Renoroc at 1:09 PM on May 13, 2015 [11 favorites]

The human race owes an unpayable karmic debt to the chickens at this point
posted by clockzero at 1:10 PM on May 13, 2015 [6 favorites]

But they never asked if they should...
posted by kmz at 1:10 PM on May 13, 2015 [1 favorite]

Straight from the trailer: everytime I blocked local gene activity, attendance skyrockets.
posted by 27kjmm at 1:21 PM on May 13, 2015

Sigh, everywhere there's a story about dinosaurs, there are the predictable Jurassic Park comments. So boring. This is a damn interesting genetic modification, that has nothing to do with Hollywood fantasies.
posted by agregoli at 1:22 PM on May 13, 2015 [4 favorites]

This group of meat-eaters had long snouts, small brains and eyes, and lots of teeth. Somehow they transformed into birds, which have none of those things.

Someday it might be possible to recreate editors from fossilized DNA.
posted by Drastic at 1:30 PM on May 13, 2015 [9 favorites]

Sigh, everywhere there's a story about dinosaurs, there are the predictable Jurassic Park comments. So boring. This is a damn interesting genetic modification, that has nothing to do with Hollywood fantasies.

You might say they were so preoccupied with whether or not we could make a Jurassic Park joke that they didn't stop to think if they should.
posted by MCMikeNamara at 1:39 PM on May 13, 2015 [45 favorites]

Sigh, everywhere there's a story about dinosaurs, there are the predictable Jurassic Park comments.

They gave a chicken a dinosaur snout.
posted by Drinky Die at 1:43 PM on May 13, 2015 [5 favorites]

Jurassic Bawk?
posted by Greg_Ace at 1:43 PM on May 13, 2015 [5 favorites]

Sigh, everywhere there's a story about dinosaurs, there are the predictable Jurassic Park comments. So boring. This is a damn interesting genetic modification, that has nothing to do with Hollywood fantasies.

So what's your contribution?

Being someone who is not some kind of paleogeneticist, my range of coherent reactions is pretty much limited to, "wow cool," and, "lol Jurassic Park."
posted by cmoj at 1:44 PM on May 13, 2015 [3 favorites]

Important birb rights go back a long way.
posted by fifteen schnitzengruben is my limit at 1:53 PM on May 13, 2015 [2 favorites]

We do what we must because we can. For the good of all of us. Except the ones who are dead.
posted by SPrintF at 2:02 PM on May 13, 2015 [4 favorites]

My cockatoo is protesting this by throwing his food out of his cage.

Hey, at least it wasn't a Jurassic Park joke, right?
posted by Splunge at 2:09 PM on May 13, 2015 [4 favorites]

At last, I will be able to serve my family dino nuggets made from actual dinosaurs instead of their debased progeny
posted by prize bull octorok at 3:48 PM on May 13, 2015 [3 favorites]

This is really going to mindfuck the foxes.
posted by Thorzdad at 3:56 PM on May 13, 2015 [1 favorite]

I have to say my cockatiel remembers when his kind was six feet tall and loved ripping flesh to bits :D

This is pretty cool work!
posted by Calzephyr at 4:08 PM on May 13, 2015 [1 favorite]

My chickens like their beaks just the way they are. Do not fuck with the chickens.
posted by Sophie1 at 4:55 PM on May 13, 2015 [2 favorites]

I am not sure that giving chickens dino-snouts is a good idea. A sharp peck from an enraged hen is quite bad enough, thank you, without giving them the whole 'rend tasty flesh from prey' option.

And has everyone really forgotten this?

While investigating a gene mutation known to affect organ development in chickens, Matthew Harris of the Max Planck Institute in Tübingen, Germany, noticed sharp protrusions on the jaw of a 16-day-old embryo. Scientists had never suspected a connection between tooth formation and the gene--known as talpid2--because embryos with the mutation rarely survive past 12 days. Further investigation by Harris and colleague John Fallon at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, indicated that the teeth were conical and saber-shaped, resembling those of an alligator or crocodile.

We had the feathery bastards grow teeth not ten years ago. I call conspiracy. I call a well-organised, well-hidden development effort. I say make those Jurassic Park jokes while you still can, puny humans, and start thinking how we're going to bury all that evidence that KFC ever existed...
posted by Devonian at 5:21 PM on May 13, 2015 [2 favorites]

The real question is does this prevent the beaks getting hung up on my nuggetizer?
posted by Mr.Encyclopedia at 3:46 AM on May 14, 2015

Where are the pictures? Did it happen?
posted by jefflowrey at 3:57 AM on May 14, 2015

But does it still taste like chicken....?
posted by mfoight at 6:05 AM on May 14, 2015

Wonderful.
posted by dozo at 7:03 AM on May 14, 2015