Animal Info Chickens Place of Origin

About the place of origin of the chickens in India, ancestors and when domesticated.

CHICKENS

PLACE OF ORIGIN

The prehistoric big daddy of all birds, including chickens, is the crow-sized archaeopteryx, which had a reptilelike body, feathers, and claw-tipped wings, and dates back 145 million years.

However, the chicken's direct ancestor is the wild red jungle fowl found in Thailand, Burma, Sumatra, and eastern India. Tamed by man about 5,000 years ago, it was probably the first domesticated bird.