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Genesis, take two
The Globe and Mail ^ | Nov 2, 2007 | Ann McIlroy

Posted on 11/03/2007 7:44:49 PM PDT by 49th

The chicken egg has been prepped for surgery – a pea-size hole cut in the shell and covered with sticky tape. And now Hans Larsson, a McGill University researcher, removes it from the incubator, places it under a microscope and prepares to operate.

He gently peels off the tape and teases back the membranes that line the shell with tweezers. Through the eyepiece, he can see the tiny dot of a heart, steadily beating. He can also see the bud where he implants a milky bead doused in a protein. He hopes it will coax the embryo to grow a big tail. A dinosaur-like tail.

paleontologist, Prof. Larsson spends a significant portion of his time doing traditional dinosaur hunting, digging fossils as far afield as the Arctic and Africa with jackhammers and pickaxes. But he has long been frustrated with the limitations of studying old bones and what they reveal about the mysteries of evolution.

It was by examining ancient skeletons that paleontologists learned that modern birds, including chickens, descended from dinosaurs and that their relatives include such fierce predators as Tyrannosaurus rex. What fossils don't reveal, though, is how exactly such dramatic anatomical changes first arose. How did teeth the size of bananas turn into beaks? Or mighty tails become wimpy, feathered stumps?

For answers, Prof. Larsson has turned to the burgeoning field of evo-devo – or evolutionary developmental biology – a radical new approach to understanding the past.

It is based on the astonishing discovery that modern animals, including humans, share many of the same body-building genes and that some of these genes have been around for millions of years.

(Excerpt) Read more at theglobeandmail.com ...


TOPICS: Canada; Culture/Society; Miscellaneous
KEYWORDS: astonishingjunk; balderdash; clueless; coyoteman; crevo; crevolist; darwinistbilge; evolution; genetics; gottagettagrant; ntsa; paleontology; rehasheddarwinjunk; stuckonstupid; utterjunk
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To: 49th
Arise chicken!


21 posted on 11/04/2007 3:27:53 PM PST by Sir Gawain
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To: freekitty

Jurassic Park?


22 posted on 11/04/2007 4:14:51 PM PST by metmom (Welfare was never meant to be a career choice.)
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To: freekitty

Humor is lost on some on FR.


23 posted on 11/04/2007 4:15:41 PM PST by metmom (Welfare was never meant to be a career choice.)
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To: metmom

I know. LOL But we can have fun.


24 posted on 11/04/2007 4:41:27 PM PST by freekitty ((May the eagles long fly our beautiful and free American sky.))
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To: 49th; DaveLoneRanger
Article word count:

Might = 4
Could = 6
If = 9
May = 9
Probably = 1
Likely = 2
Should = 8
Potential = 2
Possible = 3
Possibility = 1
How = 17
Suspect = 1

25 posted on 11/04/2007 4:57:15 PM PST by DouglasKC
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To: 49th; freekitty
somewhat... he’s making chicken embryos express latent genetic traits like dinosaur-like tails.

No, he's not. He's trying, but has so far been unsuccessful according to the article.

26 posted on 11/04/2007 4:58:40 PM PST by DouglasKC
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To: RightWhale

27 posted on 11/04/2007 7:49:19 PM PST by Diamond
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To: Coyoteman
How did dinosaurs turn into chickens?

You think the article is interesting I submit this to you. What came first the chicken or the egg?

28 posted on 11/04/2007 10:09:11 PM PST by taxesareforever (Never forget Matt Maupin)
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To: DaveLoneRanger

My house shares 99% of it’s construction materials with one of Trump’s mansion; too!


29 posted on 11/05/2007 4:42:01 AM PST by Elsie (Heck is where people, who don't believe in Gosh, think they are not going...)
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To: Sola Veritas

You has to recapitulate the diagenesis of the theory too.


30 posted on 11/05/2007 9:13:53 AM PST by RightWhale (anti-razors are pro-life)
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To: 49th

Latent genes are going to be the next theory that goes the way of recapitulation.


31 posted on 11/05/2007 10:59:49 AM PST by dan1123 (You are to be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect. --Jesus)
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To: Coyoteman; 49th
“Interesting. Good article.”

Total BS (paleontologists learned that modern birds, including chickens, descended from dinosaurs) they wish it were true, but wishing is not science.

32 posted on 11/05/2007 1:18:44 PM PST by razzle (The America haters love algore, the God haters love darwin.)
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To: taxesareforever

They figured this one out last year. It was the egg.

http://www.cnn.com/2006/TECH/science/05/26/chicken.egg/


33 posted on 11/05/2007 1:23:27 PM PST by 49th (this space for rent)
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To: 49th
Therefore the first bird that evolved into what we would call a chicken, probably in prehistoric times, must have first existed as an embryo inside an egg.

Where did the egg come from?

34 posted on 11/05/2007 10:07:56 PM PST by taxesareforever (Never forget Matt Maupin)
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To: 49th
But if scientists can make chickens look like dinosaurs, what other creatures might they build? What variations on the human form are possible?

Shudder. Sounds like someone wants to make the Island of Dr. Moreau a reality.

35 posted on 11/06/2007 9:42:44 AM PST by curiosity
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To: 49th

Thought so. No answer says it all. Go back to DC.


36 posted on 11/06/2007 10:58:17 AM PST by taxesareforever (Never forget Matt Maupin)
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To: taxesareforever
Where did the egg come from?

A Red Junglefowl somewhere in South Asia, possibly Gallus gallus spadiceus. Does that answer your question?

37 posted on 11/08/2007 4:49:52 PM PST by Alter Kaker (Gravitation is a theory, not a fact. It should be approached with an open mind...)
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To: Alter Kaker
A Red Junglefowl somewhere in South Asia, possibly Gallus gallus spadiceus. Does that answer your question?

Where did the Red Junglefowl come from?

38 posted on 11/08/2007 8:56:37 PM PST by taxesareforever (Never forget Matt Maupin)
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To: taxesareforever
Where did the Red Junglefowl come from?

Ah, now that's a different question. All extant junglefowl are descended from primitive junglefowl which emerged as the genus Gallus in Eastern Europe in the Pleistocene; they're all members of the pheasant family.

We can go back up the evolutionary ladder to prokaryotes if you'd like, but I think I've answer your "chicken and egg" question.

39 posted on 11/08/2007 9:14:27 PM PST by Alter Kaker (Gravitation is a theory, not a fact. It should be approached with an open mind...)
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To: Alter Kaker
but I think I've answer your "chicken and egg" question.

So easy to state that the egg came from the junglefowl but it gets extremely difficult (impossible) to backtrack that egg all the way back to....to....what?

40 posted on 11/09/2007 12:01:54 PM PST by taxesareforever (Never forget Matt Maupin)
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