Hens' Teeth
If something is “as rare as hens’ teeth” it is unusual to the point of not even existing. It’s an expression that really doesn’t need much in the way of explanation. We all know, after all, that hens don’t have teeth. Right?
The expression first came into use on the American frontier in the mid-1800’s. I imagine a scenario like this one: The Civil War is raging, and the supply chain is broken. Stuff just isn’t moving west on the railroads. Abigail, in her calico dress and bonnet, is standing by her Iowa homestead chicken coop and is having a conversation with her friend about getting provisions, “Caroline, I about had a conniption! I went all the way into town to Webster’s store and I managed to get the very last pound of sugar. They were completely out of kerosene, and coffee….Will I ever see coffee again? It’s so rare…it’s as rare as….rare as….” Abigail notices the hens. She focuses on their beaks. An American colloquialism is born!
Hens’ teeth are rare indeed, but they do exist in the world. Where? Well…Wisconsin, for example.
Wisconsin scientists have discovered hens’ teeth and that discovery is linked to chickens’ dino connection. When we think of dinosaurs, we think of the large toothy creatures that starred in Jurassic Park. Yet, most paleontologists and evolutionary biologists now consider birds to be a living, non-toothed branch of dinosaurs. Yep, all birds, including chickens, are dinosaurs. The extinct dinosaurs and birds share a common ancestor, and that ancestor had teeth. And, as it turns out, birds still possess the genes for growing teeth. They were just switched off at some point in the evolutionary process.
In 2006, John Fallon and Matthew Harris of the University of Wisconsin were working with a mutant chicken called Talpid 2. These mutants have genes that are so scrambled that the embryonic chicks don't live long enough to hatch. But studying them help researchers better understand birth defects. The scientists noticed that unusual structures were growing under the beaks of the chick embryos. They were teeth! The mutation had flipped on a switch that evolution had flipped off 60 million years ago.
Paleontologist Jack Horner, in his much-discussed 2011 TED talk, converses about his team’s work to bioengineer a chicken into a toothed dinosaur. They would accomplish this, he tells us, by switching on the genes that would change a beak into a toothed snout, extend the tail, and turn the wings into velociraptor-like claws. I’m intrigued. I’m also a bit repulsed and maybe a little frightened. But I’m not holding my breath. Ten years have passed since Dr. Horner announced this speculative research and I am not aware of any toothy, feathered velociraptors. Of course, maybe there’s a secret island somewhere….
Meanwhile, my hens spend every day in the coop pecking with their toothless beaks and flapping their clawless wings and are happy as can be. They don’t need teeth to chew their food – once they swallow all those big chunks, their gizzards grind them all up and that works just fine. Almost every day is a good day in the coop. And for most chickens nowadays, that’s a rare thing. As rare as….well, you know.
“Rare as Hen’s Teeth” is one of about a bazillion folk expressions that reference chickens. Would you like to discover the story behind “rule the roost,” “pecking order,” “chickens have come home to roost” and a bunch more? Take a look at my article in the on-line journal, Farmer-ish, “Chicken Talk: A Look at Chicken-Themed Folk Expressions.” The article is copiously illustrated with the art of the phenomenal Daphne Fossler, who did the pic for this post.
Rule the Roost (Daphne Fossler)
