Chicken can grow teeth?

[Elrohir]

Chicken can grow teeth.

Surprise: Chickens Can Grow Teeth

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.

(Click on the link and scroll down, I didn't feel like quoting twice as much with them just talking about how chickens came from dinosaurs and whatnot)

Pretty funny stuff.

 

[El_Machinae]

I remember one scientist who outlined some outrageous genetic modifications to make pigs fly. He was trying to refute another scientist's proposals to cure aging by making modifications.

 

[Sophie 378]

Heh, why not just read some Diana Wynne Jones? Dark Lord of Derkholm and Year of the Griffin had geneered flying pigs and horses, and griffins. Unfortunately the books are unhelpful as to exactly how to splice the genes...

ONtopic ... did beaks develop in critters that had teeth? If so, could this be a random throw-back?

EDIT note to self: read article before spamming.

 

[Kozmos]

They actually tweaked normal chicken into ones like Talpids?Me love genetic engineering

 

[MobBoss]

Dont forget to make them ill-tempered and put a lazer on their head!!

 

[Xanikk999]

Wow. This is very interesting indeed. I though no birds had teeth since archopeatryx (cant spell it).

 

[carlosMM]

wow - how can the simple fact that chicken can grow teeth have escaped the broad public and the public education system for so long? I knew this when I was about 15!

 

[MrCynical]

Wow. This is very interesting indeed. I though no birds had teeth since archopeatryx (cant spell it).

There are a number of other species of birds known from fossils to have had teeth. They're known as Odontornithes, and there are a fair number of examples in the Mesozoic period. Some survived until relatively recently (a few million years ago), but no modern birds normally have teeth.

 

[general_kill]

wow - how can the simple fact that chicken can grow teeth have escaped the broad public and the public education system for so long? I knew this when I was about 15!

Where did you learn this?! Or was I just sleeping in biology again

 

[Sophie 378]

Didn't Shakespear mention hen's teeth for a witch's brew or something? (sleepy ... incoherent)

 

[Shaihulud]

Excellent! Now my dream for recreating raptors from their avian descendants is becoming more of a reality.

 

[The Last Conformist]

This isn't news, is it?

 

[Sidhe]

Yeah this is something that has been happening naturaly for the entire existence of man chicken cohabitation, this isn't news it's history.

 

[Abaddon]

now i want a flying pig.

I guess the entire threads point is the fact tht there is the saying "Rarer than hen's teeth"

 

[Rambuchan]

[trivial murmur]

Many people say "Does the Pope wear a dress?" when the answer to something is obviously 'yes'. Well, my friends and I used to say "Do chickens have lips?" when the answer was obviously 'no'. It never crossed our minds to roll out a teeth version. So many missed opportunities in life

[/trivial murmur]

 

[carlosMM]

[trivial murmur]

Many people say "Does the Pope wear a dress?" when the answer to something is obviously 'yes'. Well, my friends and I used to say "Do chickens have lips?" when the answer was obviously 'no'. It never crossed our minds to roll out a teeth version. So many missed opportunities in life

[/trivial murmur]

well, they used to have lips, too, y'know?

 

[carlosMM]

There are a number of other species of birds known from fossils to have had teeth. They're known as Odontornithes, and there are a fair number of examples in the Mesozoic period. Some survived until relatively recently (a few million years ago), but no modern birds normally have teeth.

well, aside from egg teeth

Where did you learn this?! Or was I just sleeping in biology again

Biology class indeed - but then I come from a country that doesn't use the bible as a textbook there (j/k)

seriously: biology class - but that happened due to a very competent teacher. Aside from that - well, I studied biology, so whaddaya'xpect?

 

[El_Machinae]

I knew this when I was about 15!

But you also liked dinosaurs (clearly), so it's more likely that you retained this type of information. We remember what we like.

 

[MjM]

This would actually be bad if they all had teeth. Because chickens are very dumb animals, and would end up taking some bites out of humans and other things.

 

[Abaddon]

dumb= vicious? i dont think so