There are currently around 23 billion chickens on earth. This makes the chickens the largest group among all land vertebrates.
However, humans had a decisive influence on the fact that the chickens became what they are today. This report British researchers in the journal Royal Society Open Science .
The scientists studied archaeological findings from chicken bones to trace the evolution of these important bird foodstuffs. According to this, chickens have changed as fast as other species over millions of years within a few decades through targeted breeding.
Thus – and through the widespread – chicken bones could even serve as markers for the so-called Anthropocene in the distant future, the researchers said. The Anthropocene is the geological age in which man, through his actions, influenced the world around the world in a verifiable way.
