ForumsThe TavernDinosaurs alive again?

5 1378
Doodeedaa
offline
Doodeedaa
116 posts
Farmer

Can dinosaurs come back to life?

  • 5 Replies
Doodeedaa
offline
Doodeedaa
116 posts
Farmer

Scientists created some sort of chicken dinosaur.

botinok
offline
botinok
36 posts
Farmer

No they can't i suppose and humanity has much more actual problems to deal with

HahiHa
offline
HahiHa
8,253 posts
Regent

Sorry, as much as I'd like to see an actual dinosaur, we will probably never see one. Contrary to what is suggested in the Jurassic Park movies, we actually don't have any genetic material from dinosaurs (I think DNA doesn't get preserved more than 1 million years; dinosaurs went extinct some 65 million years ago). And if, it would be so fragmentary we couldn't do anything with it at all.

What you think of is Jack Horner. He's a paleontologist who wants to make dinosaur-like animals by switching on/off, or implanting, certain specific genes in chicken. They already managed to grow chicken teeth, now they want to make their tail grow in length instead of growing into a feather brush, and making their arms not grow wings but fingers and claws; such things. It would definitely not be a dinosaur, just a chicken with a lot of basal(ancestral) characteristics. Since we don't know exactly how dinosaurs looked like in detail, it's extremely suggestive.

@botinok
Apart from simply doing something cool and seemingly senseless, this also serves a certain purpose; as Jack Horner, as soon as they manage to make a dino-like chicken, said they want to show it at Oprah's so people can see that birds indeed are descendants of dinosaurs. It serves a very important purpose to educate people and fight the silly creationists.

But some Asian scientist group also want to clone a mammoth and let an elephant lady breed it. This makes seemingly even less sense, but I guess it shows what we can do with genetics and will keep funds coming for more important projects. You know, science needs the funds, and has to show time and again some results. I think in this line such experiments, who are extremely mediatic, are perfect.

Gamer_Cale
offline
Gamer_Cale
1,370 posts
Nomad

we actually don't have any genetic material from dinosaurs


They have got dinosaur blood and stuff out of a fossil but apparently we can't do anything with it yet...

link here
HahiHa
offline
HahiHa
8,253 posts
Regent

Yes, I read a similar thing about blood cells found in a T-rex bone, if I'm correct. And although the scientific community still has to be convinced of the authenticity, it's probable they found some remainings of protein structures. But as the article you linked mentions, "Proteins such as collagen are far more durable than DNA". Finding protein structures in a dinosaur bone is already extraordinary; finding actual DNA would be more then miraculous.

Showing 1-5 of 5