Chicken also teething

Chicken will teething if pigs could fly! Now, maybe you should start looking for a sky for those flying pigs, because scientists have discovered a mutant chicken with complete teeth that can chew like crocodiles.

The mutant chicken, called Talpid, also has severely defective legs and died before hatching. It was found 50 years ago, but no one has checked its mine until now.

Normal chicken on the left, Talpid on the right.The set of mutant jaws clearly shows the teeth.( LiveScience )

" What we found is that teeth are similar to those of crocodiles - not surprisingly because birds are the closest living relatives of alligators, " said Mark Ferguson from Manchester University.

What happened

About 300 million years ago, the ancestors of all modern vertebrates were divided into two branches: mammals and reptiles / birds. The oldest reptiles, like crocodiles and American alligators, have conical teeth. Even the oldest birds, called archosaur, are the same.

And, about 80 million years ago, modern birds appeared without teeth.

" So what can you expect of bird teeth? Of course they will resemble their ancestors and with the closest living relatives, " said co-researcher John Fallon from the University of Wisconsin.

Talpid conical teeth.( LiveScience )

In fact, Talpid's teeth are conical, very similar to the archosaur's teeth and close to the teeth of a young alligator or crocodile, Fallon said. If the animal is alive, its chewing will be able to turn inward.

Archosaur has a mouth similar to the shape of a crocodile snout. Thus, the development of the mine has caused birds to abandon their teeth.

Create more mutations

The finding makes scientists curious to know whether healthy chickens possess genetic procedures 80 million years ago for teething.

By making several mutations, they caused teeth to grow in normal growing chicken embryos. These teeth appear to resemble reptiles of reptiles and have many general genetic characteristics, supporting scientists' hypotheses. However, no such chicken embryos are hatched.

A direct application of this study, Ferguson said, is that it is possible to replant teeth for those who have lost their chewing because of accidents or illnesses.

T. An