Tag Archive for 'Chicken'

Cooper & Milinkovitch demonstrate that an intravenous injection of sonidegib, a potent Shh pathway inhibitor, at embryonic day 9 (E9) temporarily produces striped domains (instead of spots) of Shh expression in the skin, arrests morphogenesis, and results in unbranched and non-invaginated feather buds -- akin to proto-feathers -- in embryos until E14. Image credit: Fabrice Berger & Michel Milinkovitch.

‘Sonic Hedgehog Pathway’ Underlies Evolutionary Emergence and Diversity of Feathers, Study Suggests

Mar 20, 2025 by News Staff

Molecular signaling pathways are communication systems that transmit messages within and between cells. According to a new study by University of Geneva...

A compilation of evidence for ancient chickens in Central Asia: SEM images of a Bash Tepa egg shell, emphasizing morphologically distinct breathing pores at magnifications x30 (a), x150 (b), x750 (e, f); (c) a ceramic egg with clay balls from Bukhara dating between the tenth and twelfth centuries CE; (d) the Sophytes coin from Bactria in 300 BCE; (g) a fragment of an ossuary from Bash Tepa dating to the last centuries BCE, with an apparent chicken on the top; (h) a selection of eggshells from the Bukhara site, showing color (essentially all white) and burning, which was evident on many of the shells. Image credit: Peters et al., doi: 10.1038/s41467-024-46093-2.

Study: Chickens Were Widely Raised across Southern Central Asia as Early as 400 BCE

Apr 2, 2024 by Enrico de Lazaro

The origins and dispersal of the chicken (Gallus gallus) across the ancient world is one of the most enigmatic questions regarding Eurasian domesticated...

Embryological series of Japanese quail (Coturnix coturnix japonica) showing the transition from ancestral to derived pelvic states across avian prehatching ontogeny: (a) pelvic reconstructions along the evolutionary transition to living birds; note that pelves are shown as examples of character states and are not in one-to-one correspondence with ontogenetic stages; (b) during ontogeny, the ilium extends first posteriorly and then anteriorly, the pubis retroverts, the tail becomes relatively reduced and a transient pubic boot appears at intermediate ontogenetic stages; (c) the CFL (M. caudofemoralis longus homologue) is large during early ontogenetic stages; the IF (M. iliofemoralis homologue) originates smaller and further back on the ilium before expanding anteriorly to the derived condition and never splits into two muscles as seen in the adult; and PIFE1+2 (Mm. puboischiofemoralis externus 1 et 2 homologues) fail to fully differentiate until after the pubis is retroverted; muscles that are not highlighted are in gray; (d) the derived pelvic spinal nerve arrangement in birds (top), with additional spinal nerves contributing to the sacral plexus and nerves in Coturnix embryos (bottom). Scale bars - 1 mm in (b and d), 2 mm in (c). Image credit: Griffin et al., doi: 10.1038/s41586-022-04982-w.

Study: Developing Bird Hip Bone Passes through Ancestral Dinosaurian Conditions

Aug 8, 2022 by News Staff

Living birds have bodies substantially modified from the ancestral reptilian condition. The bird pelvis (hip bone) in particular experienced major changes...

The 1,000-year-old chicken egg found at the archaeological site of Yavne in Israel. Image credit: Dafna Gazit, Yoli Schwartz & Gilad Stern, Israel Antiquities Authority.

Israeli Archaeologists Find 1,000-Year-Old Intact Chicken Egg

Jun 14, 2021 by News Staff

A team of archaeologists from the Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA) has found an unbroken chicken egg in an Islamic-period cesspit at the archaeological...

2,000-Year-Old Fast Food Shop Uncovered in Pompeii

Dec 27, 2020 by Enrico de Lazaro

Archaeologists have unearthed a frescoed thermopolium (a hot-food-drink shop) in Pompeii, an ancient Roman city frozen in time after the catastrophic eruption...

Adult red junglefowl (Gallus gallus). Image credit: Per Jensen.

Study: Chickens Have Smaller Brains than Their Junglefowl Relatives

Sep 1, 2020 by News Staff

The red junglefowl (Gallus gallus), a species of tropical bird found in south-east Asia, is the primary ancestor of the domestic chicken (Gallus gallus...

The clutch of Massospondylus carinatus eggs. Image credit: Brett Eloff.

Scientists Use X-rays to Peer inside Fossilized Dinosaur Eggs

Apr 10, 2020 by Enrico de Lazaro

Powerful X-ray beams at the European Synchrotron in France allowed an international team of researchers to study some of the world’s oldest and well-preserved...

Earth’s technosphere now weighs some 30 trillion tons -- a mass of more than 50 kg for every sq.m of the planet’s surface, according to Jan Zalasiewicz et al.

Humans and Domestic Animals Will Dominate Anthropocene-Era Fossil Record, Paleontologists Say

Dec 19, 2019 by News Staff

The terrestrial fossil record of the current geological epoch, the Anthropocene, will be unique in Earth history and will be dominated by humans, cows,...

Chicks are born with the ability to distinguish and avoid dangers. Image credit: Marcel Langthim.

Chicks Born with Knowledge to Flee from Predators, Study Shows

Oct 31, 2019 by News Staff

Published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, the study also found that new-born chicks know to slow down or stop moving to avoid being...

Schematic for the fabrication of the eggshell microparticle-reinforced hydrogels and cell encapsulation in 3D. Image credit: Wu et al, doi: 10.1039/C9BM00230H.

Eggshell Particle-Reinforced Hydrogel Can Help Grow and Repair Bones

Jul 11, 2019 by News Staff

A team of researchers at the University of Massachusetts Lowell has found that chicken eggshell microparticles inserted into a hydrogel matrix can be used...

Athanasiadou et al show that the nanostructure of the eggshell changes during egg incubation, weakening the shell for chick hatching. Image credit: Ilona Couleur.

Scientists Describe Nanostructure, Mechanical Properties of Chicken Eggshell

Apr 2, 2018 by News Staff

Over their short lifetimes though, bird eggshells change their strength: they get thinner and weaker before hatching begins. Now, an international team...

CO2-dependent dye loading of HeLa cells expressing Cx26 from human. The top images (green) show the CO2-dependent loading of 5(6)-CBF at three different levels of PCO2. The Cx26 was tagged at the C-terminal with mCherry. The bottom images (red) in each panel show the mCherry fluorescence and hence Cx26 expression corresponding to the cells that were loaded in the images above. Image credit: Elizabeth de Wolf et al, doi: 10.1098/rspb.2016.2723.

Biologists Identify Crucial Molecule that Regulates Breathing

Feb 2, 2017 by News Staff

A team of researchers at the University of Warwick, UK, has identified Connexin26 (Cx26) as a key molecule that reacts to carbon dioxide (CO2) in our bodies...

A selective mating approach within the population that started in 1957 has resulted in an over tenfold difference in the size of the chickens. Image credit: John McCormick / Virginia Tech.

Mitochondrial Evolution Can Happen Much Faster Than Thought, New Study Reveals

Oct 28, 2015 by News Staff

A new study published this week in the journal Biology Letters overturns the popular assumption that the mitochondrial evolution is only visible over long...

Rooster in the municipal park of Mouscron, Belgium. Image credit: Jamain / CC BY-SA 3.0.

Roosters Crow in Order of Seniority, Japanese Scientists Say

Jul 24, 2015 by News Staff

According to a trio of animal physiology researchers from Japan, the highest-ranking rooster has priority to announce the break of dawn. Rooster in the...