Dino-Chicken

Tom: this is not the blog post that I referenced on Facebook the other day. Just so you know.

There is a professor on my faculty who is primarily a paleontological osteologist. Translation: still loves dinosaurs at age 35. That's OK. I embrace my inner dork and think dinosaurs are pretty rad, still, too.

Anyway, he's been featured on Discovery channel dinosaur shows and he keeps a couple blogs called "Sauropod Vertebrae Picture of the Week" as well as "Ask Dr. Vector." When you go into his office he's always got cool skeletons and stuff in there. He told me that the main difference between birds as we know them and dinosaurs lie in their hox genes. You can tweak hox genes so that a bird will not grow feathers, for instance.

Matt and I were watching some program about dinosaurs that featured an interview with Jack Horner, who is kind of the pop-paleontologist. He was, apparently, the basis for the character Alan Grant in Jurassic Park. He says, that we will have dino chickens in the next 5 years. Presumably this will be done via hox genes to eliminate the feathers and swap the beak for some teeth.

Matt said wistfully, "Wow. Just imagine having your own pet dino chicken." He paused before adding, "It'd probably eat the corgi, though."

Can you imagine the fine print that would come on the box containing your new pet dino chicken egg? "WARNING: Your new pet dino chicken will eat a variety of foods. Extensive testing has shown that the preferred substrate of pet dino chicken is Welsh Corgi. Keep pet dino chicken out of reach of Welsh Corgis."