Before chickens, they tried to domesticate the ferocious cassowary. Douglass research receiving wide media coverage.

Before chickens, they tried to domesticate the ferocious cassowary. Douglass research receiving wide media coverage.

UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — Before humans opted for comparatively more benign chickens, there was a time when they may have tried domesticating the razor-clawed, roundhouse-kicking cassowary, according to research conducted by Joyce L. and Douglas S. Sherwin Early Career Professor Kristina Douglass and her colleagues.

The research, originally published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, has been picked up by multiple media outlets, including:

Image of Kristina Douglass
Kristina Douglass,
Douglas S. and Joyce L. Sherwin Early Career Professor
Topic(s): Food and Agriculture, Global Issues
Photo of adult cassowary with two chicks
An adult male and two young Southern Cassowary at Artis Zoo, Amsterdam, Netherlands. In this species the adult male looks after the chicks.
Image Credit: Arjan Haverkamp via Wikimedia Commons under CC BY 2.0