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(CNN) - Humans never walked the Earth with dinosaurs, but if we had, we would certainly have tried to roast a velociraptor. Or maybe bake some T. rex.
Of course, we have no way of knowing if dinosaurs would have been a delicacy or an unpleasant dish to serve unwanted guests. But scientists do know that today's birds are descendants of dinosaurs, evolving over millions of years until they lose their teeth and develop beaks.
In one study, scientists from Yale and Harvard actually were able to alter chicken embryos to grow the snouts of velociraptors instead of spikes.
"Until very late in development, a bird's body does not resemble a bird but rather a dinosaur body," said Bhart-Anjan Bhullar, assistant professor of paleontology and zoology of vertebrates at Yale, and lead author of study. "It turns out that, although that explains the shortness of the face, it doesn't explain the covered peak."
His research revealed that birds have a unique set of genes in the middle of their faces that tell their bodies to grow outward, eventually forming a beak. His team of scientists removed that specific area of birds from chicken faces to replicate the molecular activity of their first ancestors. They then let these embryos grow, which resulted in a hybrid skull of a raptor.
"When I affected the previous genes, the subsequent genes shifted to a gene more similar to a reptile," explained Bhart-Anjan Bhullar. "What we did was an experimental setback of evolution to resurrect this form that had not really been seen on Earth in millions of years."
READ: New bone, whose is it? Paleontologists say this femur belongs to one of the greatest dinosaurs of all time
It tastes like chicken?
That led us to ask: if it is possible to create a dino-chicken in a laboratory, would dinosaurs have known chicken? Well, not exactly.
Dinosaurs were strong and formidable animals, Bhullar explains. Based on the samples of velociraptor claws that scientists have preserved, Bhullar speculates that they would know more as raptors, such as hawks or eagles.
"I wouldn't be surprised if they acted more like raptors today, if they were accurate, fast and really scary," Bhullar told CNN. “Actually, all the movies I've seen, like Jurassic Park , have underestimated the size of their claws. They are about twice the size and have exactly the same shape as eagle claws. ”
So what would a hawk know? (By the way, we don't suggest that you track a bird of prey for dinner). Exotic meat enthusiasts say it would be similar to turkey, but more fun because hawks are carnivorous.
Of course, the taste of any meat is affected by the muscle composition of the animal and what it eats. A fast-moving raptor needs fast-contracting muscle fibers, which are associated with white meat. But not all dinosaurs were similar to raptors: some were herbivorous, others inhabited the earth and others seemed much less frightening.
As dinosaurs are reptiles, Bhullar suggests that other primitive dinosaurs may taste similar to crocodiles, which share a common ancestor with dinosaurs.
As for the taste of the crocodile, Paul Cook, owner of the exotic meat company Osgrow, told CNN that it looks and tastes like pork chop.
“It has that golden brown color on the outside. And you would need a suitable knife and fork to eat it, ”said Cook. “People think it will taste fishy because it has been in water. It's more like pork, but you know it has been in water. It is definitely not chicken. ”
But the meat of the simplest evolutionary descendants of dinosaurs (chickens and other small birds such as pigeons and birds that inhabit the ground) should not be discarded.
"The things that survived [the great extinction] were the ones that could survive with almost anything," Bhullar explained. “So the birds that survived were these tiny monotonous creatures, probably not so bright. Similar to a chicken. "
In fact, a 2007 study in the journal Science revealed that some protein sequences from a T. rex fossil closely resembled the protein sequences found in a chicken.
So, depending on the dinosaur, maybe it would be a delicious barbecue after all. And Cook is sure that the meat would sell like crazy.
"If someone could produce dinosaur meat, I'm sure they could sell that," Cook said. "People will buy it just to try it."
Dinosaurs
