Have you guys ever seen a chicken with a dinosaur’s face? I didn’t think so. But, that’s where science is heading people. So, get used to it. And, just FYI – it’s pretty freakin’ awesome.
Courtesy of the good ol’ BBC (it’s okay to click – it’s the news outlet, not the porn acronym (how have I not already made that joke?)):
Sixty-five million years ago, an asteroid is believed to have crashed into Earth. The impact wiped out huge numbers of species, including almost all of the dinosaurs.
One group of dinosaurs managed to survive the disaster. Today, we know them as birds.
No shit? You’re kidding me! Those things we see raising hell and chirping early in the morning are actually dinosaurs? Being a dinosaur is infinitely better than being a finch. And, you’re telling me those pigeons outside the office every day were around 65 million years ago? Like, literally those same pigeons? That’s what I’m assuming – I mean, that’s what the sentence says. That’s crazy – 65 million year old pigeons. Who would’ve known? Science uncovering interesting information every day.
The idea that birds evolved from dinosaurs has been around since the 19th century, when scientists discovered the fossil of an early bird called Archaeopteryx. It had wings and feathers, but it also looked a lot like a dinosaur. More recent fossils look similar.
Hold up, science. I’m confused now. Birds evolved from dinosaurs? Does that mean dinosaurs had some eggs and hatched out some birds? I don’t know if I understand. Nothing much, just pointing out that you might need to be clearer on this.
But these early birds didn’t look the same as modern ones. In particular, they didn’t have beaks: they had snouts, like those of their dinosaur ancestors.
Snouts? Like, dogs? I’m having a hard time following this story.
To understand how one changed into another, a team has been tampering with the molecular processes that make up a beak in chickens.
By doing so, they have managed to create a chicken embryo with a dinosaur-like snout and palate, similar to that of small feathered dinosaurs like Velociraptor. The results are published in the journal Evolution.
The team’s aim was to understand how the bird beak evolved, because the beak is such a vital part of bird anatomy. It has been crucial for their success. The 10,000 or more bird species occupy a wide range of habitats, and many have specialised beaks to help them survive.
But they did not set out to create a “dino-chicken”, say lead authors Bhart-Anjan Bhullar of Yale University in New Haven and Arkhat Abzhanov of Harvard University in Cambridge, US.
“Whenever you examine an important evolutionary transformation, you want to learn the underlying mechanism,” says Bhullar.
Suuuuuuuuuuuure thing, Bhart-Anjan. “We’re not trying to build a dino-chicken” sounds JUST LIKE something someone who was building a dino-chicken would say.
But, I don’t think there’s anything to be ashamed of here. This isn’t like, “oh – I swear I only had ONE white wine spritzer at the barbecue.” You don’t have to try and talk yourself down. Just own it. I don’t care about what society thinks. Just say you made a dino-chicken because it’s a badass thing to do. Like, if I was a scientist, I’d be doing this sort of thing all the time. Climate change, curing cancer, all of that stuff is so overdone.
We need more people trying to have some fun with science. Put a human dick on turtle’s shell. Create a tree that grows leaves made of rubber. Make a pill that causes your poop to crackle like Pop Rocks. You know – stuff that will bring a smile to someone’s face.
This is what science is for – just doing whatever the fuck you want. Your only limit is your imagination. That’s my opinion. Ethics, taxpayer’s money, none of that stuff matters when you have big dreams of figuring out how to put walrus tusks on a domestic house cat. Know what I mean?
Stoney Keeley is the editor of the SoBros Network and covers the WWE for WrestlingNews.co. Follow on Twitter @StoneyKeeley, @WrestlingNewsCo
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