Scientist Vows To Reverse-Engineer Dinosaur From Chicken

By Stuart Fox Posted 08.25.2009 at 4:20 pm 11 Comments

Dinochicken The experimentation has gotten out of hand. Somebody call the Colonel, only he can save us now via James Gurney

When I was a kid, the only animal I wanted for a pet was a dinosaur. Seeing as non-avian dinosaurs had been extinct for around 65 million years, I settled for an iguana. However, new research at McGill University in Canada may finally bring me that pet dino I've been waiting 20 years for.

In an effort to meet the challenge posed by the book How To Build A Dinosaur, Hans Larsson, the Canada Research Chair in Macroevolution at Montreal's McGill University, has claimed he will attempt to reverse-engineer a dinosaur from a chicken by altering chicken genes known to have evolved since the Cretaceous.

Larsson usually works as a traditional paleontologist, digging up fossils and studying the macroevolution of vertebrate limb bones. This will be his first genetic engineering project. But despite that lack of experience, he has already secured funding from the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada, the Canada Research Chairs program, and the National Geographic Society.

Needless to say, there are many problems with the very concept of making a dinosaur out of a chicken. For one, dinosaurs, as a group, are defined by only a few characteristics: a hole in their hip socket, some limb bone flanges, and other minor anatomical features. Changing chicken DNA won't produce those traits, because chickens already have them. A chicken, like all birds, is already a dinosaur. Getting rid of its feathers or giving it teeth won't make it more of a dinosaur than it already is.

But hey, if Larsson wants to engineer school-bus-sized, featherless chickens with teeth, more power to him. And I call the drumstick.

[via Physorg]

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11 Comments

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seatellite

08/25/09 at 6:09 pm

That picture looks... dirty...

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JamesDonVito

08/25/09 at 6:52 pm

I can understand why a mad scientist would want to do this, but a non-mad one? =)

Here's a more serious article on combining Salamander DNA with people's in hopes of regenerating human limbs!
http://fusionfilter.com/?p=519

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animemaster

08/25/09 at 8:10 pm

Teethy featherless tailed giant chickens COOL! Wonder whin KFC will change there initials :D

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Ironwolf

08/26/09 at 9:01 am

Ahhhh...no.

We've seen this movie before.

The humans lost.

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trueperspective

08/26/09 at 2:38 pm

"A chicken, like all birds, is already a dinosaur."...FAIL! Yes, and uh based on some basic anatomical similarities such as having eyes, skin, and a brain it can be clearly shown that whales are actually humans! Ahhh, you have to love the ridiculousness of evolution. I mean it just comes natural for me to think as Im gnawing on a chicken leg that, "hey, your great grandaddy was a T-Rex." REALLY...wouldn't that be de-evolution to go from an uncontested predator to the most popular dinner item.

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mitEj

08/27/09 at 8:09 am

@trueperspective

Your comparison is incredibly wrong here.

It should have been "and uh based on some basic anatomical similarities such as having eyes, skin, and a brain it can be clearly shown that whales are actually Mammals."

That would have been a more accurate comparison.

There is a great deal of Scientific evidence that the Avian animals are dinosaurs. Just much smaller or flying ones, the decedents of the little ones that could survive whatever killed off the big ones.

genetic diversity is what allows animals to survive different environments and ecosystems, and why you and a bat and a dog and sloths are all mammals even though you are vastly different creatures.

So the next time you eat a burger you can think " Heh heh heh you cousin 3256 times removed is a Bengal Tiger and it would totally eat me if it had a chance."

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ecobase

08/27/09 at 9:25 am

Now I think this a big waste of time! Who would need that, what is it good for?
Mira @ Canada Loans

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söve

08/27/09 at 11:29 am

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TechnoFreakFace

08/31/09 at 2:22 pm

@ecobase

waste of time?! can you imagine the tourism/money generating machine this would be!? museums scoop up tons of moola showing just the dino BONES...! if they could have the the real thing, their earning would skyrocket to say the least

@animemaster

great thought! :D

@Ironwolf

its called MOVIES. Why dont tigers and elaphants terrorize the world? cuz humans, when it comes to slaughtering their fellow animals, are pro's

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theColeTrain17

08/21/10 at 1:22 am

@trueperspective

"REALLY...wouldn't that be de-evolution to go from an uncontested predator to the most popular dinner item."

Woah! Consider this, that 'popular dinner item' still exists and with a thriving population. That 'uncontested predator' obviously couldn't or simply didn't survive without adapting and evolving into a chicken (over an extensive period of time). Why a T-rex evolved into a chicken might be rather ambiguous, but there are more factors than just predator-based success (such as bacterial-immunity or ability to cope with a more modern climate).

Recognize.

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johnjohns

03/10/11 at 1:33 am

OKAY! PERSON WHO POSTED 2 YEARS AGO AND WILL PROBABLY NEVER READ THIS! Chickens. ARE. DINOSAURS!!! and all birds for that matter. Birds are in the same phylum(I think its a phylum-could be kingdom, class or order) as dinosaurs. Just thought I'd let everyone know that. Also, if I were allowed, I would so do this (Or maybe just map the genome and create the most awesome dino ever!).