Hypothetical Project - Creating a Dinosaur-like Chicken

[AGeese]

Is this a photo of one of your birds, or is this the type they referred to in a layer post that cannot be imported?

I don't think that's one of his, but that is the Parrot Beak Asil. There's no Western standard of perfection for the Parrot Beak and I don't know of an Eastern standard.

Though... if I were judging I would say - no gap - should be present / showing when the bird closes its beak; and their beak should be prominent, nicely curved/rounded, but not so short that they look like a Muppet.

That picture seems to be in line with what I would call Parrot beaked.

For the standard Aseel/Asil varieties:
https://livestockconservancy.org/heritage-breeds/heritage-breeds-list/aseel-chicken/

 

[ChicksnMore]

This is technically hypothetical, but I’d love to see it happen in reality! (Albeit as long as precautions were taken to prevent insane inbreeding and health issues)

Alright, so the goal would be to emulate the look of theropods as closely as possible through breeding alone, meaning that they would never have teeth or a proper snout. However, the illusion of these features could be done through selecting traits that sorta look like it (notches in the beak that resemble tomial teeth, a broader beak, etc.). As far as overall head shape goes, with almost forward-facing eyes and a narrow, angular head, the Yokohama chicken has the best overall (i might be a little biased lol, I love the way they look!).
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For the beak shape itself, the broad and rounded beaks of chantecler and cornish seem to be good candidates to give it more height. I’ve never seen chicken breeds that have a notch in the beak, but assuming the trait is possible through mutations and encouraging that mutation’s development (mild abnormality of the beak that appears like a tomial tooth being bred to where it becomes more prominent, as long as it is specifically monitored to refrain from it becoming a hindrance to the animal itself), it could be introduced over time. If this is not possible, than a rounded and high (height in comparison to the head) beak works well to emulate a snout regardless.

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View attachment 3199111 As far as the body itself goes, assuming we are trying to recreate the body plan of a generic dromaeosaur, it needs to be held horizontally to the ground. Most chickens have a body like this, and as far as feathering goes, hard feathering would show more of the form itself, leading to a more dinosaur-like silhouette (found in breeds like Aseel, Malay, Saipan, etc; preferably Saipan because of [from what I remember, correct me if I’m wrong] their genetic diversity due to being highly mixed.) However, the vertical stature of game chickens is also extremely interesting, and would likely mix well with the other features bred for in this project.
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As far as wings go, the question comes down to whether or not the breed is intended to be a good flyer; I think having the capability of flight is preferable, with longer legs making terrestrial travel more favorable. Keeping the game chicken legs while introducing breeds like Sumatra for both the coloring and the flight capabilities would likely suit this purpose.

For tails, the Yokohama blood would likely already result in a long tail, especially with the added Sumatra.

Throughout, care would need to be taken in ensuring that, despite the game breeds being present in the heritage, the temperaments of the other parents win out, as these animals would exclusively be pets and show animals (could potentially have higher egg production bred in as well, but that is not a priority). Game chickens can be very sweet with people, but I worry about the potential interactions they might have with other chickens.

What do you all think? Are there better ways to go about the hypothetical project? What breeds would you incorporate into your dream dino-chicken?

There's actually some scientists that have been working on reverse engineering dinosaurs from chickens. It's fun to read about and would be even more fun to work on!

 

[AGeese]

There's actually some scientists that have been working on reverse engineering dinosaurs from chickens. It's fun to read about and would be even more fun to work on!

Are you talking about Jack Horner? I heard he was asking for 1.5 million. I don't know, but for that much money I'll settle for an Asil.

 

[ChicksnMore]

Are you talking about Jack Horner? I heard he was asking for 1.5 million. I don't know, but for that much money I'll settle for an Asil.

Definitely right!
Not just him...theres a few groups. They've succeeded somewhat in the head and legs. They destroy the embryos before hatch though because most of the scientists are doing it for research rather then trying to create a dinosaur.
A lab created bird and a bred bird would be two very different beasts. Just thought anyone interested in this might enjoy reading about the other.

 

[AGeese]

Wouldn't it be easier to bring back a terror bird first?

 

[eira_barbara]

Actually, not so much: we don't have any genomic data from terror birds, and we also don't have a convenient source of eggs in which to gestate them. (Even the extant ratites we do have, like ostrich and emus, are quite distant relatives and can't necessarily be expected to provide a suitable developmental environment for a terror bird in the egg--maternal egg yolk provisioning can vary quite substantially among species! The closest living relative is probably seriemas, which are much smaller than any terror bird species.)

If you were going to try and de-extinct a large terrestrial bird, your best bet is probably moa, but even that is going to be considerably harder than playing with various developmental gene expression factors to try and re-engineer teeth out of a beak or encourage distal claw growth on wings. We are not anywhere near successful "de-extinction" of any species, even those we have complete (or complete-ish) ancient genomes from.

On the scientific end of things, the draw is mostly using the "cool factor" of the project to justify funds to learn more about gene expression during development and how transcription factor expression and gene regulation can contribute to complex phenotypes. It's all developmental genetics. You're not going to learn much about dinosaurs qua dinosaurs from the project: as far as evolutionary biologists are concerned, any chicken is a perfectly representative dinosaur already just as it is.

 

[Shabby Chic-Hens]

ooh, this looks cool!
and do you know what a dromaeosaurus is?

 

[Florida Bullfrog]

Wouldn't it be easier to bring back a terror bird first?

Aseel look very terror-bird like when they’re young.

 

[Bird is the word]

Love the idea
I think you should try to get a large bird to try size it up to be " closer" to Dino size but I really want to see how this turns out

 

[nicalandia]

Aseel look very terror-bird like when they’re young.

Parrot Beak Asils look even more like Terror Bird