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How long will the study continue

Posted by GeorgeRAHancock on 07 Feb 2014 at 20:28 GMT

This is a incredibly interesting insight into a potentially new way of constructing behaviour in theropod dinosaurs. This however gives me a nagging question will you continue to view how the chickens behave as adults with the tail. Or could the experiment be repeated to show the transition of how the bird learns to move with the tail with each day and see if any further changes develop as an adult due to behaviour changes or minor effects on the development of the chicks morphology such as changes in muscle positioning. Such changes have been observed in animals such as winter the dolphin who has a abnormal muscle development around the caudal vertebrae due to the loss of winter's tail and the modified method that is used when winter swims (side to side rather then up and down). Although I doubt the effects would be as prominent as those in Winter.

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