However, in the hyperpigmented chickens, virtually all of the body’s cells express EDN3, creating up to 10 times as many melanoblasts and leading to bones and innards that look like they’ve been dipped in tar.
#COLOR SILKIE CHICKEN EGGS SKIN#
And when a normal chicken is developing, certain cells, like those in the skin and feather follicles, express EDN3, which triggers the migration of melanoblasts, or the cells that go on to create color. Most vertebrates have a gene known as endothelin 3, or EDN3, which, among other things, controls skin color. While the internet has seen many different kinds of animals exhibiting melanism, from black panthers and servals to a melanistic flamingo, black-scaled geckos, and snakes, the chickens Andersson studies take this pigmentation to an entirely new level. “The mutation underlying fibromelanosis is very peculiar, so we are sure that it occurred once,” says Andersson. What’s more, Andersson says all of these chickens can trace their mutation back to a single bird that may have lived hundreds or even thousands of years ago.
“We have evidence that it is a complex rearrangement in the genome,” says Leif Andersson, a geneticist at Uppsala University in Sweden who studies the genetics of domestic animals. Scientists call the condition fibromelanosis. Another breed, known as the silkie because of its soft, hair-like feathers, also sports hyperpigmented skin and tissues, as do the black H’Mong chickens of Vietnam and the svarthöna of Sweden. Interestingly, the cemani, which is found in Indonesia, is just the most extreme example of what scientists call dermal hyperpigmentation. Not only are the bird’s feathers, beak, comb, tongue, and toes a striking, blue-ish black, but so are its bones.Įven the chicken’s meat looks like it has been marinated in squid ink. The Ayam cemani chicken may be the most deeply pigmented creature on earth.
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