Four Legged Chicken?

[{DSG}DarkRaven]

http://apnews.myway.com/article/20060923/D8KAHEGG0.html
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1415248/posts


I heard on the radio this morning that a farmer in Pennsylvania found a chicken with four legs. It sounded a bit fishy, and after googling it, it still sounds fishy, perhaps a little more so. And yet, I'm still not certain what to believe. Above you'll find two links. The first leads to a site detailing the story I heard.

The second, however, leads to a story about a Romanian farmer who also found a four legged chicken. I discovered the second story when I googled for the first. It also has a picture of this chicken.

Naturally, I immediately checked Snopes (http://www.snopes.com) to see if this was just an internet prank/rumor that had gotten around recently (or had been dug up by the radio station). They've got no official article on the site; just a listing in the news section for suspicious articles. Both stories are coroborated by several news sites.

Weird, huh?

[moocow]

Four legged chickens...


Sounds yummy.

[Master Ghaleon]

Yes, Ill take mine deep fried please

[Rainman]

It's amazing what a few misplaced genes can do.

EDIT:



There's no definitive reason why such deformities happen, said Cliff Thompson, a retired professor of genetics at the University of Pittsburgh at Johnstown. He said it could be an accident of development, akin to a sixth toe on a cat.


Hey, I have a six toe cat. :cool:

Seems he's blaming development not genetics.

[{DSG}DarkRaven]

Genetic development (or rather, improper development) could still render this unusual lifeform breedable. If a mutation was caused very early on during the replication of DNA, it's possible that this new species could be KFC's new cash cow, though somehow I doubt it.

[Cloral]

Put a few more wings on the chicken and then you'll have something. Everyone loves hot wings.

[ShadowTiger]

Put a few more wings on the chicken and then you'll have something. Everyone loves hot wings.

If you find cattle that mutates similarly, we could finally have buffalo wings made a reality! :kawaii:

... that does not sit well with me when my train of thought turns to chicken breasts. o.o'


I must admit, the concept of a four legged chicken being rapidly reproduced does sound appealing on an economic sense, (Twice the meat just can't be beat.) ... (EDIT: that does sound awful. XD ) but what if the mutations come with some unexpected surprises? Eh?

[Mitsukara]

Maybe chickens are evolving into higher lifeforms and this is the first step.

No seriously, think about it; if the theory of evolution is at all true, this seems like an example of it. With four legs he might get around faster, have better mobility skills, etc. Most of the really successful big races- that aren't marine life- seem to have four limbs.

It'd be really interesting if they actually manage to breed this guy. Sure, more KFC, four drumsticks, yay, heck, I always eat the drumsticks myself, but far more interesting would be seeing a commonplace animal change and grow in such a big way. Even if it doesn't have much of a real effect- which other than drumstick production it probably won't-, it's still quite curious.

ST raises a good point though. He could be toxic, LOL.

[erm2003]

Aren't most mutations created by a different type of growth during the embryo stages? At school one of my colleagues has a 5-legged frog that a student just brought in last week. These things sometimes do happen in nature, just as it happens to humans too where people are sometimes born without an arm or leg.

[Rainman]

Maybe chickens are evolving into higher lifeforms and this is the first step.

No seriously, think about it; if the theory of evolution is at all true, this seems like an example of it. With four legs he might get around faster, have better mobility skills, etc. Most of the really successful big races- that aren't marine life- seem to have four limbs.


First of all, four legs doesn't provide any advantage. It would probably slow it down and make a little clumsy. (It may have four legs, but it brain hasn't adapted to that).

Second of all, this mutation gave him 6 limbs not 4. Its wings count too. The 4 limbs, 1 head, 1 tail setup is so popular because they all the decend from a lifeform that had that setup and did pretty well. Many animals have modified this setup, but remnant of this are clearly present.

[{DSG}DarkRaven]

With four legs he might get around faster, have better mobility skills, etc. Most of the really successful big races- that aren't marine life- seem to have four limbs.

I believe that one of the articles says that the chicken doesn't use the extra legs, but drags them around instead. They don't appear to be very useful, but if the bird can still get around okay, and if they still develop properly, the chicken could still be commercially viable.

I'm curious, by exactly what standards do you judge a "successful" species?

[Mitsukara]

My statement was 50% or more joke. I'm like Lilith with more words and less coolness and likedness.

Success is of course, extremely subjective, and I cannot honestly apply such attributes to animals. What I meant though, was species that seem to be generally more advanced such as Chimpanzees or something. I don't know, it wasn't a thesis.

[{DSG}DarkRaven]

So, mice, then? Racoons? Armadillos? Wombats? Tapirs? All very successful creatures in their own right.

Rainman is right about the six limbed statement. There's no other bird like this in existence, or as far as I know, no other mammal either. It's like a tiny, fluffy chimera.

[Mightylink]

cool...mutation... My best friend is mutated. Not physically though...He can lift me up over his head and it kinda freaks me out cause he has a little of an anger problem....so when he gets REALLY angry I run like hell.

[ZTC]

I found the pic of the rabbit humping the chicken funny...
definitely unusual.

[Jigglysaint]

Put a few more wings on the chicken and then you'll have something. Everyone loves hot wings.

KFC is allready doing that. How else can they have all those chicken parts just ready for the customer?

[ShadowTiger]

I believe that one of the articles says that the chicken doesn't use the extra legs, but drags them around instead. They don't appear to be very useful, but if the bird can still get around okay, and if they still develop properly, the chicken could still be commercially viable.Relative to what has previously been said in this thread, if the chicken just drags the legs around, won't they never really be used? Wouldn't the meat that's able to be gotten off of them be virtually negligible? It wouldn't really warrant much of any extra effort devoted to breeding it.

Then again, if somewhere down the line, they DO begin to work for whatever reason, it would be a different story.

[ZTC]

KFC is allready doing that. How else can they have all those chicken parts just ready for the customer?
oh crap, you found out their trade secret! ;)
I thought about that once in a while when I worked at a KFC. 40lb boxes of that stuff... Never really liked the wings anyways :shrug:

all for a little bit of meat...

[MottZilla]

Did they mention the chicken was only miles from a nuclear power plant, or better yet one of our toxic waste dumps? That's one of the reasons we get these mutated animals. That and general polution. I wouldn't advise eating them, just killing them and incinerating the corpses.