A team of researchers has successfully grown ‘dinosaur legs’ onto chicken embryos.
The scientists are trying to ‘map out’ how birds evolved from dinosaurs and the research is part of what they call ‘reverse evolution’ according to IFLscience.
Amazingly, this is not the first time that chickens have been manipulated into ‘becoming dinosaurs’.
In 2015 two separate projects took place that managed to genetically tweak the DNA of chickens to grow dinosaur-like feet and snouts.
This time however, the team from the University of Chile, were interested in how the leg bones themselves actually grow.
Modern day birds are the living descendants of a large group of feathered, non-avian dinosaurs called the Coelurosauria, including species such as Raptors.
The scientists discovered that by inhibiting the activity of a specific gene in the chicken’s DNA, the bird’s legs regained characteristics of their dinosaur ancestors.
Unfortunately, these dinosaur-like chickens weren’t allowed to hatch and they were never intended to become bonafide dinosaur-like creatures.
I guess that means any dreams/nightmares of reverse evolving birds into an ungodly master race of super intelligent dino-chickens will have to be put on hold – at least for now. Phew.
