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First dino 'blood' extracted from ancient bone

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Tommy Allison said:
So if they extract fossilized blood from a T-rex, then getting blood and DNA samples from that Starchild Skull should be a fucking breeze.
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We'll clone Starchildren to work the window and cash register. I don't think minimum-wage laws apply to non-humans.
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This is interesting because the find of the T-Rex soft tissue came out about three years ago. I have no idea why it is in an article so recently.

Dr Mary Schweitzer is really interesting and if you didn't know it she also conducts work in astrobiology from a biological perspective. Since thei T-Rex find, another find has happenened that confirmed the presence of protiens. There has been much debate whether the tissue found was actually of a T-Rex or of bacterial sludge within the specimen. I'll try and find the other article if anyone is interested but they broke open another bone of a multimillion year old creature (can't remember what off the top of my head) to find a similar phenomena.

Young Earth Creationists used this specific TRex find to further their belief that the Earth is a few thousand years old. But as it turns out, perhaps we don't know all the variables involved in preservation. And this is another area where Schweitzer does research.

And I did see a show recently that talked about reverse DNA manipulation to go from a bird (An Emu because it is evolutionarily closer to dinos) to a dino (Skunkape referred to this as well). They did perform some genetic experiments that tweaked an Emu embryo to grow a tail or at least a small portion of one. That highly suggested that theoretically a dinosaur is possible. Of course to come up with a complete one is drastically different, but a starting point.

Either way, I've found finds like this one really interesting because by mere serindipity we discovered a lot. The T-Rex was too heavy to transport so reluctantly the researchers broke the femur. And that lead to a peek at the inside of the bone to one of those "wow" moments. And it opened up pathways to learn more.
 
TClaeys said:
This is interesting because the find of the T-Rex soft tissue came out about three years ago. I have no idea why it is in an article so recently.

Dr Mary Schweitzer is really interesting and if you didn't know it she also conducts work in astrobiology from a biological perspective. Since thei T-Rex find, another find has happenened that confirmed the presence of protiens. There has been much debate whether the tissue found was actually of a T-Rex or of bacterial sludge within the specimen. I'll try and find the other article if anyone is interested but they broke open another bone of a multimillion year old creature (can't remember what off the top of my head) to find a similar phenomena.

Young Earth Creationists used this specific TRex find to further their belief that the Earth is a few thousand years old. But as it turns out, perhaps we don't know all the variables involved in preservation. And this is another area where Schweitzer does research.

And I did see a show recently that talked about reverse DNA manipulation to go from a bird (An Emu because it is evolutionarily closer to dinos) to a dino (Skunkape referred to this as well). They did perform some genetic experiments that tweaked an Emu embryo to grow a tail or at least a small portion of one. That highly suggested that theoretically a dinosaur is possible. Of course to come up with a complete one is drastically different, but a starting point.

Either way, I've found finds like this one really interesting because by mere serindipity we discovered a lot. The T-Rex was too heavy to transport so reluctantly the researchers broke the femur. And that lead to a peek at the inside of the bone to one of those "wow" moments. And it opened up pathways to learn more.
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Most recently I heard they were going to have a go at reverse-engineering a sort-of-dinosaur from chickens, which are also apparently suitable for some reason. I think the term used was "chickensaurus", probably to someone's eternal regret :)
That's probably the best chance of getting something like dinosaurs: while the blood find was impressive there's not much chance of extracting usable DNA after all that time. Still, it's cool.

As for the Young Earth Creationists, I feel sorry for them more than anything else: for missing out on the wonder and grandeur of evolution and cosmology just because their faith is so weak they depend on children's stories (and they think the words are more important than the lesson). Just sad.
 
what do you mean Capn G? spare no expense to remake the dinosaur?
that would be absolutely stupid, there are so many more things out there that need money being spent on.
it would be brilliant to do it, but stupid to allocate the money towards it.
 
TClaeys said:
This is interesting because the find of the T-Rex soft tissue came out about three years ago. I have no idea why it is in an article so recently.
Click to expand...

Yes. Ironically I've been reading Jack Horner's most recent book..."How to Build a Dinosaur". And part of the book discusses the work of Mary Schweitzer,(she was using this discovery for her dissertation) and the theories on cloning a dinosaur.
 
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