
Canadian scientist aims to turn chickens into dinosaurs - MaysonL
http://www.physorg.com/news170426405.html
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robotrout
Try to imagine yourself at Montreal's McGill University. You get your first
look at this "six foot chicken" as you enter a laboratory. He moves like a
bird, lightly, bobbing his head. And you keep still because you think that
maybe his visual acuity is based on movement like T-Rex - he'll lose you if
you don't move. But no, not Velocichicken. You stare at him, and he just
stares right back. And that's when the attack comes. Not from the front, but
from the side,

~~~
warwick
Overheard at McGill:

Guy 1: It looks like we're out of a job.

Guy 2: Don't you mean extinct.

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abefortas
This is interesting, and would be epsecially so if he could actually get to a
making a dinosaur stage.

Larsson says chickens are direct descendents of dinosaurs. He is a
paleontologist. My brother says they _are_ dinosaurs. He is merely an aspiring
paleontologist. Perhaps both are the case? Can anyone clear this up?

~~~
run4yourlives
Chickens are dinosaurs in the same way that you are a prehistoric Lemur.

You, and all other primates are descendent from the first proto-primates that
appeared millions of years ago. A lot changes in 65 million years, so to say
they are exactly the same is not any more accurate than calling you a lemur.

That said, it is likely that you do have a hell of a lot in common with
ancient lemurs, at least DNA wise.

~~~
abefortas
But "lemur" is rather more specific than "dinosaur." Dinosaur is just a broad
category defined by scientists. If they want "Dinosaur" to include modern
animals, that's up to them.

From the tone of your answer, you sound pretty confident that chickens are not
dinosaurs-- perhaps you have some authoritative information on this? If so,
can you direct me to it? My google-fu deserts me.

~~~
run4yourlives
_prehistoric Lemur_ not lemur.

If you are hung up on the fact that lemurs still exist, use the word
prosimians instead.

 _you sound pretty confident that chickens are not dinosaurs_

That's because I'm pretty confident that this:

<http://scienceblogs.com/gregladen/chicken.jpg>

is not this:

<http://domz60.files.wordpress.com/2009/05/dinosaur.jpg>

If you really need something to prove that, I think we are dealing with bigger
problems than can ever be resolved within this discussion.

They are certainly related however, and even a layman can see this even
without looking at the evolutionary hip structure. That said they are far
enough apart that calling a bird a dinosaur is the same as calling you a
lemur.

~~~
asdlfj2sd33
Humans and lemurs are both primates. And some people theorize that both
chicken and dinosaurs are aves.

If you ask me, all dinosaurs were birds and some survive until today, makes
more sense then some dinosaurs were birds and it's just those that survive.

But I'm not a paleontologists.

And what bugs me is that we have all manner of lizards, even huge turtles and
crocodiles and warm blooded birds, but not a single small dino.

There being no huge dinos makes sense, but if we have Nile crocodiles and
ostriches, why not one chicken sized dino?

~~~
run4yourlives
_all dinosaurs were birds and some survive until today, makes more sense then
some dinosaurs were birds and it's just those that survive_

Um, no. Birds are members of the larger dinosaur family the same way you are a
member of the primate family. They are dinosaurs in the way that you are a
primate, but they aren't dinosaurs in the way that you aren't a lemur.

There was a time when a whole host of other animals were a part of this
family, but they have died off. The entire group of animals is collectively
known as dinosaurs, but since birds evolved and were proven distinct prior to
the extinction, it is correct to say that birds are a subset of dinosaurs, not
that all dinosaurs were birds.

People who speculate that such a split is incorrectly classified, and that
birds are simply evolved dinosaurs have a pretty big uphill climb in my
opinion. The presence of fossils that show that what we would classify as
birds living before the extinction is a pretty major hurdle.

~~~
abefortas
Either birds are dinosaurs, or they aren't. My brother says there ain't no two
ways about it-- as you say, they are dinosaurs the same way I'm a primate.
Obviously they aren't Composognathus* the way I'm not a lemur, but that's not
what I was wondering.

*a small theropod, most probably an ancestor of birds

~~~
run4yourlives
Avialans are part of the Dinosauria classification, yes.

The problem is that that not even all Avialans are "birds", let alone all
dinosaurs.

So, yeah birds "descended" from dinosaurs, so did a lot of other stuff. I
don't think anyone disputes this.

------
ellidi
...with cardboard, scissors and duct-tape.

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onreact-com
These guys should stop focusing on the movies they watched as kids. Creating
"traits of dinosaurs" in chicken is as useful as waking the dead or speaking
with ghosts. The more I read about "modern science" the more I wonder why they
don't employ psychiatrists at scientific facilities to prevent the most
bizarre fallacies.

~~~
Dilpil
The aim of the research- as clearly explained in the article by the way- is
not to gain utility from mutant chickens, but to prove that birds evolved from
dinosaurs.

