chicken or the Egg

Well if we wqnt to play with this, then let's play with. Why are dodos extinct? They were also avian and could not fly just like the chicken, but they went extinct without the help of man or factors that we can catalogue so for all purpose of possibility, maybe the chicken we know off today is an offspring developed by changes in the environment of dodo birds so that their next generation would survive the environment. Now discuss

Animals become extinct for a vast variety of reasons. The dodo is a hard one since it wasn't recognized as extinct until long after it was. It could have already been endangered prior to sailors coming into contact with them. There also could have been more competition for resources due to humans and domesticated animals. I think I remember there was also evidence of a flash food that was pretty devastating for dodos, especially if they had low numbers to begin with. There's still work being done to find out what happened. Also the closest living relative to the dodo are the Nicobar pigeon, the orders are different for chickens and dodos. For a more recent bird extinction, that'd be the passenger pigeon. Which is sad considering they used the be the most common bird in north america 200 years ago. They became extinct directly from human factors.

@Jinsei oh no, chickens are the best. Chickens are the descendants of dinosaurs so there's still a lot of interest for paleontologists. Jack Horner I know is famously attempting to recreate a dinosaur using chickens. There's a ted talk about it if I remember. Making a dinosaur from scratch or something like that. Another great series about evolution that was on PBS last year, but I'm sure you can find it somewhere online, is Your Inner Fish by Neil Shubin. It's all about how humans still maintain various traits from when we evolved from ancient fish, reptiles, and primates. Very cool

@xueli Have you read Neil Shubin's book of the same title?

@ xueli One thing that I find funny from evolution is how primates have a somewhat distinctive origin source, while the avian are more widespread with a lot of what ifs behind them. Also how only our line out of all the evolution lines seemed to evolve too fast.