Chickensaurus?

[Mgellis]

As I understand it, Jack Horner has been doing experiments reactivating dormant genes in chickens with the hope of creating a kind of neodinosaur.  I guess this has been going on for several years.  I had heard he had some early successes (e.g., getting the chicken to grow teeth, etc.) but there were also some hurdles.  I haven't been able to find anything about this work recently.

Has anyone heard or read anything about this research?  Will chickensaurus stalk the land anytime soon?

Thanks in advance.

 

[CharonY]

35 minutes ago, Mgellis said:

Has anyone heard or read anything about this research?  Will chickensaurus stalk the land anytime soon?

That was a while back and I thought it was a bit of a mismatch in skills. Ultimately the question is more one of developmental biology and there are still huge gaps in our understanding regarding regulation that goes on there. I am moderately certain that since then folks have managed to get some regulatory elements identified that may be involved in differential morphologial developments, though most results will be some malformation. Typically these developments are rather complex with precise interplay of many signals and effectors and studies typically are rather blunt (e.g. knockdowns) which gives us hints regarding function, but does not allow us to precisely control developmental programs.

 

[guidoLamoto]

Not only do I have insomnia tonight, but I can't sleep either, so I thought I'd share my experience with chicken genetics:

Years ago, as an undergrad, I had the bright idea to isolate the genes for drum sticks and for taste in chickens. If I could replicate them and re-insert them I could develop chickens that would taste twice as good and have twice as any drumsticks (everybody likes drumsticks the best). I figured i could sell the idea to The Colonel or Popeye and make a fortune. ..

Well I successfully isolated the genes,  replicated them and re-inserted them. I did grow chickens with four legs...but I don't know if they tasted any better. With those four legs, the little %$#@ers could run so fast I could never catch them to wring their necks and cook them.

Oh, well.

[mistermack]

On 9/6/2023 at 8:06 PM, Mgellis said:

Will chickensaurus stalk the land anytime soon?

Sixty million years is a long long time, since the Tyrannosaurus walked the Earth. The ancestors of modern chickens were probably not closely related to it even then. And now, 66 million years later, the modern chicken is loads more distant.

If you look at a more realistic project, to resurrect the Aurochs, (the ancestor of modern cattle) by breeding from existing cattle, you would think it would be a doddle in comparison. The last wild Aurochs only died out about 350 years ago, and they only began domestication of cattle from Aurochs about 10,000 years ago. A blink of an eye compared to 66 million years. But the various attempts to "breed back" the Aurochs have not succeeded. 

So trying to breed back to a typical dinosaur is a waste of time. Having said that, chickens are a type of dinosaur, just not the ones we first think of.