You WON'T believe what the T-Rex is today!

This is beyond interesting to me, to say the least.

It's long been the contention of modern paleontologists that dinosaurs are much more akin to birds than to reptiles. This was popularized by the book and movie Jurassic Park.

Now, we have more concrete evidence of it! And not only that dinosaurs are genetically akin to birds, but specifically who T-Rex is akin to in modern times.

When they compared the collagen sequences to a database that contains existing sequences from modern species, they found that the T. rex sequence had similarities to those of chickens.

That's right! The most fearsome hunter of the Cretaceous period was nothing but a chicken. I guess that answers what it tasted like.

These findings are based on research from NC State and Harvard Medical, which -- believe it or not -- found protein remnants inside of fossils. These collagen proteins lasted millions of years, blasting apart the modern theory that protein cannot last that long and has since leached out of fossils.

If you read between the lines, it also indicates we are one step closer to a real Jurassic Park perhaps.

Originally posted by behindthescenes

That's right! The most fearsome hunter of the Cretaceous period was nothing but a chicken. I guess that answers what it tasted like.

mmMMmmmmm..T-rex BBQ!! (going to require a HUGE toothpick after I get finished with that puppy!! ...LOL)

Anyhoo.

On a more serious note, very interesting read behindthescenes!

I wonder if scientists have discovered the same protein gene sequencing amongst other animals as well?

If we use the T-rex as a template to compare with other species to date (possibly ones from the past as well), we could get an idea as to who would be related to whom?

But as the article states:

"Scientists had long assumed that the material in fossil bones would not be preserved after millions of years of burial," said Enriqueta Barrera, program director in NSF's Division of Earth Sciences. "This discovery has implications for the study of similarly well-preserved fossil material."

So long as the protein genes have not fossilized too much/genetic degredation.

All in all,

Good post! Behind the scenes!



[edit on 20-4-2007 by TheDuckster]

Oh my, so they are calling it protein remains. Give me a break, lol. Those so called protein remains are actually DNA segments. How in the world did they survive a couple million years without breaking down? Or is it really that the blood vessels & bone marrow the DNA was taken from inside the partially fossilized T-Rex bone is really only a coulple thousand years old?

PhD's in biology will tell you that animal matter cannot survive more than 10,000 years witout totally breaking down. What else do you not know that the liberal media isn't telling you...?

Already posted here:

www.abovetopsecret.com...

Originally posted by TC Mike
Oh my, so they are calling it protein remains. Give me a break, lol. Those so called protein remains are actually DNA segments.

No, they aren't. They're colagen. I know this because I work in a paleontology lab and we were discussing the article the other day. The paleontolgist spent some time explaining it to us.

How in the world did they survive a couple million years without breaking down? Or is it really that the blood vessels & bone marrow the DNA was taken from inside the partially fossilized T-Rex bone is really only a coulple thousand years old?

Nope. It's 60+ million years old.

PhD's in biology will tell you that animal matter cannot survive more than 10,000 years witout totally breaking down.

Maybe a biologist would say that, but the paleontologists (who work with dinosaurs... biologists don't) would tell you that in fact they do find tendons and other materials that have been only partly fossilized. I was prepping one bone that had some sort of "skin" around it (the periosteum) that wasn't fossilized and might have still had some organic compounds in it.

So I've seen it... under my own hands, in the labs. And yes, I believe the bone I was working on was 63 million years old. Everything else but that thin skin was completely turned to rock.

What else do you not know that the liberal media isn't telling you...?

It has nothing to do with the political leanings of the media (though the conservative press would be less likely to report on a rather dull scientific finding. They prefer to report on social issues instead). It simply has to do with your interest in the material.

If you were fascinated by dinosaurs, you would (as another poster said) have known that this is actually not "news" but just another bit confirming a long-held theory.