"Cheep."

Just in from the Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, Missouri, and the International Chicken Genome Sequencing Consortium, an analysis of chicken DNA published in today's Nature magazine.

The sequencing of the one billion base pairs, or "letters," of DNA cost $13 million and took ten years.

The chicken is the first descendant of the dinosaurs to have its genome sequenced.

The domestic chicken, with an estimated 20,000 to 23,000 genes, has roughly the same number of genes as humans.

The analysis shows that we share a common ancestor with our feathered friends: a kind of reptile that lived about 310 million years ago.

Hey, I just had a great idea for a sequel: we'll call it "Jurassic Coop."

Maybe not, huh?

Anyway - here's the story off the BBC website:

Scientists Unlock Chicken Code

The DNA of chickens will help us understand our own genome

The chicken is the latest animal to have its genetic sequence decoded.

A team led by the Washington University School of Medicine, St Louis, has read through the DNA of the red jungle fowl, the ancestor of domestic chickens.

The genetic variations of three types of domestic chickens have also been mapped by an international team at China's Beijing Genomics Institute.

The work will be useful for scientists as they probe the causes of disease and could help them combat avian flu.

The chicken genome comprises about one billion base pairs, or "letters", of DNA - in contrast to the three billion found in humans.

Hidden in the chicken DNA code are its genes, the starting templates the bird's cells use to make proteins.

It is these sophisticated molecules that build and maintain the animal's body.

The sequence deposited in a public database this week represents a first draft.

It still needs to be tidied up and the gene locations tracked down.

Nonetheless the code will already provide invaluable information for biomedical and agricultural researchers around the globe.

Dr. Dave Burt, of the Roslin Institute, UK, has been working on chicken genomics for about 10 years.

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