'Jurassic World' Paleontologist to Change a Chicken into a Dinosaur Within 10 Years (VIDEO)

First Posted: Jun 17, 2015 09:00 AM EDT

Apparently, we haven't learned from Jurassic Park. The renowned paleontologist, Dr. Jack Horner, is spearheading genetic research that shows how chickens could be used to potentially engineer dinosaurs back into existence within the next 10 years.

The researchers aren't using dinosaur DNA, though. Over time, DNA degrades-and any material left from dinosaurs has long since passed its "use by" date. However, researchers are looking into recreating dinosaurs through another means: birds.

Birds are actually the closest living relatives of dinosaurs. This means that it may be possible to take a bird-a chicken, for example-and reverse engineer it to make it look like a dinosaur.

If it looks like a dinosaur, would it actually be a dinosaur? That's cause for some debate. More likely, scientists would end up with a genetically modified chicken. With that said, the idea isn't completely farfetched.

Already, researchers have created chickens with dinosaur snouts by essentially "de-evolving" them by tweaking certain genetic switch. They were also able to create chickens with dinosaur feet through the same method.

"Of course birds are dinosaurs, so we just need to fix them so they look a little more like a dinosaur," said Horner in an interview with People magazine. "Dinosaurs had long tails, arms and hand-and through evolution they've lost their tails, and their arms and hands have turned into wings. Additionally, their whole snout has changed from the velociraptor-look to the bird-like beak morphology."

Currently, researchers are working on engineering the tail portion back into existence-something that Horner claims may be the hardest part. Dubbing his creation the "Chickensaurus," Horner is optimistic about succeeding.

Want to learn more? Check out the video below, courtesy of YouTube.