Scientists hope to learn more about humans from our cousins, the chickens. That’s right — chickens, our next of kin. An international team of researchers recently identified the one billion letters of the DNA code in chickens and, quite surprisingly, about 60 percent of protein-coding genes in chickens match those in humans. The scientists believe that chickens flew off our rung on the evolutionary ladder more than 310 million years ago, which is slightly longer than some chicken leftovers have been aging in my refrigerator. (To shed some light on how long ago we separated from chickens, consider this. More than 310 million years would make us more distant than third or fourth cousins, but we still wouldn’t want to marry chickens because such relationships are banned in most states.) The DNA discovery may explain the similarities we have shared with chickens throughout the ages and the references to gallus domesticus which continue to surface in our language and culture. For openers, perhaps the corporate decision to change the name of Kentucky Fried Chicken didn’t have anything to do with fats or fat-free diets. Maybe it came about because we don’t need to be reminded that we’re eating our own kind. Call it a Donner Party sensitivity. It might be why some guys tend to strut around like barnyard roosters when they could just walk. It may also explain why they carry combs. Our similarities with the bird world might be why some of us tend to chicken out when the pressure’s on and why other people call us "big chickens." This might be the reason why we find pecking orders in our workplaces and why we think our paychecks are slightly better than chicken feed. In a world of pre-pubescent pop singer wannabes, it might be why so many mother hen types feel compelled to protect their cute chicks. It explains why not all "Why did the chicken cross the road?" jokes are funny. Sometimes it’s difficult to laugh at ourselves. The new DNA studies might explain why it was so easy to understand the adventures of Henny Penny and The Little Red Hen when we were young children. This might explain why some of us count our chickens before they’re hatched while others of us are more timid and afraid to play chicken. It may be why children used to come down with chicken pox rather than a sickness related to another species, such as ground squirrel pox or giraffe pox. This might be why some of us are never able to think beyond the most basic of philosophical questions, "Which came first — the chicken or the egg?" The DNA studies might also shed some light on why certain spouses, many of them birds of a feather, try to rule the roost. Other spouses, less in control, might run around like chickens with their heads cut off. Our similarities might be why a few of us eat like birds. Ancestral links with chickens might explain why players on golf links score birdies and eagles rather than kitties and puppies. Finally, when author E.B. White wrote to humorist James Thurber, "I don’t know which is more discouraging, literature or chickens," he may have been referring to us.