Scientists in Chile have created a chicken embryo that developed dinosaur-like feet after genetic manipulation, highlighting the evolutionary link between theropod dinosaurs and birds Scientists in Chile have created a chicken embryo that developed dinosaur-like feet after genetic manipulation, highlighting the evolutionary link between theropod dinosaurs and birds. 
 
 The research—published last week in the journal Evolution—shows that "by inhibiting early maturation of a leg of the chicken embryo, the leg reverts to the shape that dinosaurs' legs had," said Alexander Vargas, one of the six researchers at the University of Chile. 
 
 "The result is a chicken embryo with dinosaur legs," Vargas told AFP on Tuesday, explaining what amounts to reverse evolution. 
 
 Theropods, a group of dinosaurs, started as carnivores but evolved to eat plants and insects. 
 
 Birds evolved from small theropods in the Jurassic period more than 145 million years ago. 
 
 In their study, scientists manipulated the Indian Hedgehog Homolog gene common to all animals, including man. 
 
 They were trying to pinpoint when birds had a dinosaur-like fibula bone. When the researchers delayed early development, the bone took on the tubular shape it once had in dinosaurs. 
 
 The research should help shed new light not just on the links between birds and dinosaurs, but on the genetic changes involved in the evolution, Vargas said. 
 
 It also confirmed the hypothesis that a bone can be made to regrow with characteristics from the evolutionary past by interfering with early maturation, according to the study led by Brazilian Joao Botelho at the University of Chile. 
 
 Explore further: Molecular experiment reverses evolution in birds obtaining a dinosaur-like lower leg 
 
 More information: João Francisco Botelho et al. Molecular development of fibular reduction in birds and its evolution from dinosaurs, Evolution (2016). DOI: 10.1111/evo.12882 
 
 

 Published on Mar 4, 2014 
 
 Scientists were so preoccupied with whether or not they could, they didn't stop to think if they should! 

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– Scientists—presumably so preoccupied with whether or not they could, they didn't stop to think whether they should—have grown chickens with dinosaur legs, Phys.org reports. More accurately, a team at the University of Chile grew chicken embryos with dinosaur-like fibulas. In modern birds, the fibula is shorter than the tibia and is "splinter-like," according to the study published earlier this month in Evolution. Discover Magazine reports that by suppressing the Indian Hedgehog Homolog gene—which all animals, including humans, have—scientists spurred an ankle bone in chicken embryos to produce a bone-growing protein. This resulted in a fibula that kept growing until it was longer and more tube-like, similar to the legs of theropods—the dinosaur ancestors of modern birds. Birds evolved from theropods more than 145 million years ago, and scientists believe their leg bones changed as their bodies got lighter. But, as Discover puts it, "with one small modification, millions of years of evolution can be undone," showing "echoes of the dinosaurs remain in the DNA of birds today." In addition to showing the genetic link between dinosaurs and birds, scientists are hoping to explain the genetic changes that occur during evolution. Last year, the same team grew chicken embryos with dinosaur-like feet. And US scientists were able to do the same for dinosaur-like snouts. (Scientists have finally stopped fighting about what killed the dinosaurs.)