Scientists in Chile have figured out a way to resurrect the prehistoric traits of dinosaurs.

In a ‘reverse evolution’ experiment, a researcher has manipulated the genes of modern chickens to induce the legs of a dinosaur.

These ancestors of birds once had a tube-shaped fibula that stretched down to the ankle. Through evolution, this transformed to become the short, splinter-like fibula of birds today.

Scroll down for video

To achieve the long dinosaur-like bone, the researcher inhibited a maturation gene called Indian Hedgehog. With this suppressed, the chickens maintained their tubular fibula, which remained long and connected to the ankle like a dinosaur

COLOUR IN DINOSAURS HINTS AT HOW BIRDS EVOLVED The first birds evolved after the feathers of a group of dinosaurs received a burst of colour. Research has found that, as well as giving birds their appearance, the pigment in feathers readied their dinosaur ancestors for flight. These same chemicals may have helped change the metabolism of early birds so they could stay in the air during flight. The study focused on small, meat-eating maniraptorans, which lived 150 million years ago and had many early vestiges of birds. Scientists compared the hair, skin, fuzz and feathers of living land vertebrates including birds, mammals and reptiles with fossil specimens of ancient lizards, turtles, dinosaurs and pterosaurs. They were surprised to discover maniraptorans and modern birds shared the evolutionary development of variety in the shapes and sizes of melanosomes - chemicals that provide the colour in tissues, hairs and feathers. Advertisement

The fibula is the outer bone in the lower leg, which has evolved in birds to be shorter than its neighbour, the tibia, and no longer connects to the ankle.

In the embryonic stage, it’s been previously noted that birds first develop a tubular fibula like that seen in dinosaurs.

As it develops, this bone becomes splinter-like and the tibia grows past it.

To understand this transformation, Brazilian researcher Joâo Botelho reversed the evolutionary process.

Normally, the shaft of the bone matures more quickly than the ends, ceasing cell division first.

But in the experiments at the University of Chile in the lab of Alexander Vargas, Botelho found that the lower end of the bone was active early in development, and then ceases cell division and growth.

To achieve the long dinosaur-like bone, the researcher inhibited a maturation gene called Indian Hedgehog.

With this suppressed, the chickens maintained their tubular fibula, which remained long and connected to the ankle like a dinosaur.

Researchers suggest the early maturation, which leads to the stunted growth of the fibula, happens because of a nearby bone in the ankle called the calcaneum.

In birds, this bone presses against the lower end of the fibula, at times even confusing researchers into thinking they are one.

The lower end of the fibula may receive signals similar to those at the shaft, the researcher proposes.

While the calcaneum and the fibula eventually detach in a typical scenario, the two bones stayed together in the ‘dinosaur’ chickens.

And, the researcher says, the calcaneum strongly expresses the PthrP gene, which allows growth at the ends of bones.

Scientists in Chile have figured out a way to resurrect the prehistoric traits of dinosaurs. Dinosaurs once had a tube-shaped fibula that stretched down to the ankle. When dinosaurs evolved into birds (illustration shown) this transformed to become the short, splinter-like fibula of birds today

In the chickens with dinosaur-like legs, the researcher found that the tibia was much shorter than normal, suggesting the fibula-ankle connection prevents the neighbouring bone from outgrowing the fibula.

Researchers say the findings are consistent with evolutionary patterns demonstrated in fossil records.

This isn’t the first time Botelho has brought out dinosaur traits in chickens.

Earlier experiments have produced the reversal of the ‘perching toe,’ to obtain the non-opposed toe of dinosaurs, and a lab at Yale manipulated gene expression to achieve a dinosaur-like snout.

Though the scientist has proven capable of undoing evolutionary traits, the researchers say there’s no need to worry about a Jurassic Park style project.

‘The experiments are focused on single traits, to test specific hypotheses,’ says Vargas.

‘Not only do we know a great deal about bird development, but also about the dinosaur-bird transition, which is well-documented by the fossil record.

‘This leads naturally to hypotheses on the evolution of development that can be explored in the lab.’