The chicken embryo (Gallus gallus domesticus) is an extremely valuable model organism for research in developmental biology, in part because most of their development takes place within an egg that is incubated outside of the mother. As a result, early developmental stages can be accessed, visualized and manipulated by simply creating a small hole in the eggshell. Since billions of chickens are raised worldwide for meat and egg production, scientists can easily and economically acquire large numbers of fertilized eggs throughout the year. Furthermore, chickens share significant genetic conservation with humans, so the genetic mechanisms that have been found to regulate chicken development are also relevant to our own biology.

This video focuses on introducing the domesticated chicken as a scientific model. The discussion begins with a review of chicken phylogeny, revealing the features that make them amniotes, like other birds, reptiles, and mammals. Highlights from the millennia of chicken research will be presented, ranging from Aristotle’s postulates about the function of extra-embryonic membranes to more recent, Nobel-prize winning discoveries in neuroscience. Additionally, some current examples of studies performed in chicken embryos will be provided, such as in vivo tracking of cell movements during development and the recruitment of blood vessels to developing tumors (a process known as angiogenesis).