We have to change the way we think about the extinction of dinosaurs, as it seems that not all disappeared, but some turned to the birds we know today. Chilean researchers have been working on chickens, and the legs have been seen to be similar to those on avian dinosaurs. University of Chile researcher Joao Botelho has been investigating the changes.
The gene IHH – Indian Hedgehog – was inhibited and strange results were found. The fibulae of modern day chickens are prevented from growing as they used to. The bones no longer meet the ankle in the way they did with dinosaurs.
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The results have been published in a journal called Evolution, and the changes are attributed to the maturation of a one bone thanks to a bone in the ankle called the calcaneum. Once IHH has been regulated down, it seems that the fibula and tibia will grow to be the same length, and although the fibula grows longer than it does in controls, the tibia is not as long and tends to be bent.
There was never an intention of allowing the so-called dino-chickens to hatch as there was no record of what may have become of them. The aim of the research was to discover why the legs changed – mainly why they no longer grew in the way that they did when they were dinosaurs.
Alexander Vargas explained that there is now a great deal known about bird development, but also how the transition of the past took place.