Darwin and the Evolution of Chickens

[Cuban Longtails]

An article on Science Daily (http://www.sciencedaily.com) talks about how Darwin thought all chickens descended from the Red Jungle Fowl, but scientific research has shown that is not quite the case. You who have yellow skinned chickens actually have chickens descended from Grey Jungle Fowl.

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/02/080229102059.htm

 

[Melilem]

I heard that too. I suppose if the red and grey jungle fowl are distant cousins, the red jungle fowl couldn't possibly be the mother of all chickens (sorry, couldn't resist). But in Darwin's defence, he didn't have DNA testing available back then, and it was a pretty good guess.

 

[spook]

Ohhh cant wait to read on this, DH's family will enjoy this site! Thanx

 

[Rosalind]

Has anyone got any good articles on native chickens of South America other than Araucanas? I know there are several landraces of chickens, and they were originally thought by morphology to be descended from Polynesian founders. But then there was an article on the DNA analysis that said the South American chickens were not in fact Polynesian although they were definitely descended from the jungle fowl. The common gene set that all chickens share with the Red and Grey Jungle Fowl is...


...wait for it...

...The KFC gene. No, I am not kidding.

 

[The Chicken Lady]

In other news, chickens and humans share MORE THAN HALF of their genes.

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2004/12/041208230523.htm

Weird, huh?