• Email Us: [email protected]
  • Contact Us: +1 718 874 1545
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar

Medical Market Report

  • Home
  • All Reports
  • About Us
  • Contact Us

Black Bones, Tissue, And Organs: The Curious Case Of The Goth Chicken

August 3, 2023 by Deborah Bloomfield

One of the blackest animals on Earth is a chicken. In Java, Indonesia, where the bird is native, it’s known as Ayam Cemani. Across the internet, the majestic hyper-melanistic bird is known as the goth chicken.

Black bones, tissue, and organs are rare in the animal kingdom, and the Ayam Cemani chicken is one of only a handful of birds known to have this coloration. It’s a pretty cool look that comes with a curious scientific explanation, caused by a complex rearrangement in these birds’ genome that completes the Ayam Cemani look.

Advertisement

Fibromelanosis: the secret to Ayam Cemani

How did the chicken blacken its clothes? According to a 2017 paper, “The origin and evolution of fibromelanosis in domesticated chickens,” it all comes down to the genes. Both Ayam Cemani and Silkie breed chickens have black tissues beneath their feathers, though in the Silkie, the plumage is famously snow-white.

Pluck away the plume, however, and you have yourself one goth chicken carcass – so what connects these two birds? They both exhibit fibromelanosis, a type of hyperpigmentation that’s turned their tissues black. The driving force behind it appears to be a complex mutation involving the EDN3 gene, which codes for endothelin-3.

Endothelin-3 is pivotal for the pigmentation of birds because it can alter the way melanocytes are distinguished, created, and spread around the body. Dark pigment in tissue comes from melanin, and we see it across the animal kingdom. Ayam Cemani has so much of it because due to a (potentially) thousands-of-years-old mutation, its EDN3 gene is upregulated. This means it’s expressed in pretty much all of the cells in the body, resulting in the development of an embryo that’s chock-full of pigment cells, from its bones to its beak.

The ancient genetic mix-up that underpins fibromelanosis is thought to have happened just once in a single bird that lived hundreds – or possibly thousands – of years ago, geneticist at Uppsala University in Sweden Leif Andersson told National Geographic.

Advertisement

“The mutation underlying fibromelanosis is very peculiar, so we are sure that it occurred once,” he said.

ayam cemani

The black bones, tissue, and organs of Ayam Cemani and Silkie chickens track back to a single mutation that occurred in one bird hundreds, if not thousands, of years ago.

Image credit: cynoclub, iStock

Black tissue means black meat, so what’s it like?

Having black bones, organs, and beaks doesn’t appear to impact the chickens in life, but it has flagged them as a food source for humans. The hyper-melanistic meat is considered more valuable than your typical chicken, and may even have health benefits.

“As a kind of folk invigorant and a source of traditional Chinese medicine, [Silkie chickens are] used to reinforce body immunity and protect from emaciation and feebleness,” said co-researcher Ying-gang Tian in a release about the fribomelanistic meat of Silkie chickens. It’s long been believed to be beneficial for diabetes, anemia, menstrual cramps, and postpartum disorders, and Tian and colleagues may have worked out why.

A peptide called Carnosine is used in parts of the world as a dietary supplement for its perceived benefits in increasing muscle strength, promoting healthy aging, and managing diabetes. Poultry is known to be a good source of Carnosine, but the black meat of Silkie chickens was found to boast double the concentration compared to the meat of common White Plymouth Rock chickens.

Advertisement

So, there may be more to the jet-black Ayam Cemani goth chicken than meets the eye.  

All “explainer” articles are confirmed by fact checkers to be correct at time of publishing. Text, images, and links may be edited, removed, or added to at a later date to keep information current.  

Deborah Bloomfield
Deborah Bloomfield

Related posts:

  1. Israeli minister says Iran giving militias drone training near Isfahan
  2. French watchdog chief calls for ban on ‘payment for order flow’ in EU stock market
  3. What Would Happen To Humanity If All Microbes Suddenly Disappeared?
  4. IFLScience The Big Questions: How Is Climate Change Affecting Polar Bear Populations?

Source Link: Black Bones, Tissue, And Organs: The Curious Case Of The Goth Chicken

Filed Under: News

Primary Sidebar

  • Florida Man Gets Too Close To Bison In Yellowstone, Promptly Finds Out Why This Is A Bad Idea
  • Is A Bone A Worthy Weapon When Fighting The Rancor? What About A T. Rex?
  • Musical Cyborgs: Scientists Influence Cicadas’ Buzz So They Perform Pachelbel’s Canon In D
  • World’s 25 Most Endangered Primates Revealed – And Humans Are To Blame
  • Watch As Stadium-Sized Asteroid, Largest Of 5, Flies By Earth
  • Deleting “Mitch” Protein From Cells Could Make Humans “Immune” To Obesity
  • Antarctic Glacier Has Been Spotted Committing “Ice Piracy” On Its Neighbor
  • Bat Virus Evolution Suggests COVID-19 Virus Emerged Naturally, Spreading To Humans Through Wildlife Trade
  • Heart Attack Vs Cardiac Arrest: What’s The Difference?
  • Musk Outlines The Questionable Reason He Wants To Get To Mars So Badly, NASA Astronaut Responds
  • In 1972 The Soviets Launched A Spacecraft Bound For Venus. In The Next Few Days, It Will Return To Earth
  • Sounds From Inside A Star Reveal Unexpected Properties Of An Aging Orange Dwarf
  • Hear An Elephant Reunion Spark Sounds Even Keepers Had Not Heard Before
  • Why Do Elevators Have Mirrors Inside Them?
  • Cuttlefish Communicate With Arm Waving And Can Sense The Ripples With Their Bodies
  • First Ever Fatal Bear Attack In Florida Leads To The Deaths Of 3 Black Bears
  • Pathogenic Fungal Spores Found Surviving Miles Above Our Heads In Earth’s Stratosphere
  • “Alchemy” In Action As CERN Detects Lead Atoms Turning Into Gold
  • When Did The Earth’s Magnetic Field Form?
  • Who Were The Mysterious “Sea Peoples”, Destroyers Of The Ancient Empires?
  • Business
  • Health
  • News
  • Science
  • Technology
  • +1 718 874 1545
  • +91 78878 22626
  • [email protected]
Office Address
Prudour Pvt. Ltd. 420 Lexington Avenue Suite 300 New York City, NY 10170.

Powered by Prudour Network

Copyrights © 2025 · Medical Market Report. All Rights Reserved.

Go to mobile version