By genetically altering chickens to grow dinosaur-like snouts, scientists were able to gain some insight into how modern birds' beaks evolved.
According to Live Science, authors of a study published in the journal Evolution modified a chicken embryo to have a snout resembling that of a dinosaur for the first time. A direct descendent from the Age of Dinosaurs, birds survived by escaping the cataclysmic event that wiped their ancestors out.
"Our goal here was to understand the molecular underpinnings of an important evolutionary transition, not to create a 'dino-chicken' simply for the sake of it," study lead author Bhart-Anjan S. Bhullar, paleontologist and developmental biologist at Yale University, said in a press release.
The dinosaur fascination in popular culture comes from the mega-hit "Jurassic Park" film franchise, among other places.
"There are between 10,000 and 20,000 species of birds alive today, at least twice as many as the total number of mammal species, and so in many ways it is still the Age of Dinosaurs," Bhullar told Live Science.
The beak became the focus of study because of how it differs depending on the kind of bird and how it is unlike the rest of the animal's skeleton.
"The beak is a crucial part of the avian feeding apparatus, and is the component of the avian skeleton that has perhaps diversified most extensively and most radically - consider flamingos, parrots, hawks, pelicans, and hummingbirds, among others," Bhullar said. "Yet little work has been done on what exactly a beak is, anatomically, and how it got that way either evolutionarily or developmentally.
"This was unexpected and demonstrates the way in which a single, simple developmental mechanism can have wide-ranging and unexpected effects."
