Creeper chickens

Krüper cock; the legs are much shorter than in other breeds
engraved illustration of crested chicken with only the feet showing below the body
Illustration from the Monstrorum Historia of Ulisse Aldrovandi, published posthumously in Bologna, 1642
Bantam Krüper chicks and egg: left, long-legged chick; right, short-legged chick (length of tarsometatarsus marked in orange)

Creeper chickens are characterised by abnormally short legs, so short that the body is carried a few centimetres from the ground. This chondrodystrophy (dwarfism) is caused by a dominant lethal allele, Cp.[1]: 58  A number of breeds display the characteristic, among them the Chabo and Jitokku breeds of Japan, the Courte-pattes of France, the Krüper of Germany, the Luttehøns of Denmark, and the Scots Dumpy.[2]: 438 [3] They have been called by many names, among them bakies, brevicrews, corlaighs, crawlers, creepers, creepies, dumpfries, dumpies and jumpers.

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