Friday, April 1, 2011

Chickens for vampires?

Photograph courtesy University of Edinburgh

The naked neck chicken—also dubbed the churkey or turken—has a chicken-like body but a turkey-like head atop a long, deep-red neck. The mutation first arose in domestic chickens in northern Romania hundreds of years ago.

Scientists have cracked why the Transylvanian naked neck chicken has a featherless neck—and it isn't to give vampires easier access.

The Transylvanian bird's naked neck results from a random genetic mutation that causes the overproduction of a feather-blocking molecule called BMP12, a new DNA study shows.

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