Scientists had tried to find a way to take DNA from fossils in order to recreate dinosaurs. The Discovery Channel takes on this question in a new show: Dinosaurs: Return to Life?
The first attempt to take DNA from fossils was breaking open amber with preserved insects and trying to extract DNA from the fossilized tissue. DNA was found--in the first trial. But it could not be reproduced, indicating that the sample was contaminated.
But a breakthrough came again when a well preserved fossil was found in Montana. Since the bone was so large, they had to break it in order to transport it out of the valley. When the bone was investigated back in the lab, it looked like the type of bone found only in pregnant birds. To investigate it, one of the investigators put a piece of the fossil into an acid bath to remove some of the minerals. When the piece was removed, it was found to be soft and springy... like tissue.
This was a huge discovery, and further analysis shows that cells can be found in this tissue. We cannot recover enough DNA from these cells, though, to form a dinosaur from scratch with our current technology.
Does this mean we can't create a dinosaur within our lifetime? Maybe... and maybe not. It could be possible to take a bird, said to be the modern descendant of dinosaurs, and genetically engineer it to produce a dinosaur.
The idea is simple in theory. Change the genes that have adapted to produce a more bird-like structure to produce one that has a dinosaur-like structure. Scientists are working slowly at engineering birds to show dinosaur characteristics, including the long dinosaur tails and the sharp and long dinosaur teeth.
Dinosaurs: Return to Life? explores these tasks of engineering birds into dinosaurs. It originally aired on the Discovery Channel at 9 pm EST, February 17, 2008. Check your local listings or Discovery.com for future recasts.
What are your thoughts? Should we try to recreate dinosaurs? Is it too dangerous, or could we manage it safely? Are we headed for the age where Jurassic Park could be reality instead of fiction?
~Chelle
I was just talking about Jurassic Park with my mom today, and the only conclusion I have on this subject is after watching the movie, why would anyone want to make it a reality
So... freaking... cool.
I don't really see a reason to recreate dinosaurs except for the coolness factor. It's neat to study them and all, but I don't think it's worth the potential consequences.
It will probably happen eventually, because people will pursue knowledge at any cost. Look at cloning, a company has successfully cloned human embryos from the cells of adults (they terminated them but still...)
Humans will stop a almost nothing just to see what they can do.
Please understand that scientists do not perform research just to see what they can do. Scientists are looking for answers so that we may better understand the world and how things work. It is because of this research that cures for various diseases have been discovered and common descent between species are recognized. It is ignorant and offensive to claim such a position.
One cannot believe everything that they see on the discovery channel. As a scientist, I have learned that the discovery channel tends to over exaggerate for dramatic purposes. In many of their 'documentaries', they make assumptions far past the realms on evidence based science so that it makes better television. I am not claiming that such a concept is not possible, however, it is extremely unlikely, despite what the discovery channel may lead you to believe.
It's not possible now, and that was pointed out in the blog. However, that doesn't mean it will never be possible. We're making rather large jumps in genetic engineering.... in 50 years, who knows how much we'll be able to do.
~C
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I saw the commercial for that special and thought, "Wow, we stupid humans can't learn from our mistakes...even when the outcome was clearly shown in a popular movie!"
..but if this every becomes a reality, that doesn't necessarily mean we'll have a Jurassic Park ending.
My main reason for allowing this research to go on, and possibly lead to living dinosaurs in the future, is the fact that we'd now be able to study them properly. How cool would that be?!
Well even if scientist are successful at procreating these once living creatures we still have to keep in mind what the consequences would be. For example, the heat would they be able to survive our ever changing climate our environment has changed so much. How about the pollution! But tying to figure out how they would survive will people forget that these creatures are animals and that the same laws and considerations should be taken into effect with them. The main reason these researchers want to “bring them back” is to study them which just means putting dinosaurs through painful and cruel tests. :idk:
Maybe after we study more about adapting birds into dinosaurs we can see how our body structures vary to a dinosaurs. Plus we can see how the dinosaurs live in the enviroment and see just how they became extinct unless it was a meteor.