Pregnant T-Rex found, may contain DNA!

[Buizel91]

http://news.discovery.com/animals/dinosaurs/pregnant-t-rex-found-may-contain-dna-160316.htm?utm_source=Facebook.com&utm_campaign=DiscoveryChannel&utm_medium=social&sf22617670=1

Taken from the article:

"What has been confirmed so far is that the T. rex, which was found in Montana and dates to 68 million years ago, retained medullary bone that reveals the individual was pregnant. Medullary bone is only present in female living dinosaurs, i.e. birds, just before and during egg laying. It's this type of bone that could retain preserved DNA"

Well then, seems Jurassic Park could be right round the corner xD

In all seriousness though this awesome, what do you guys think?

 

[spartenX]

what do I think? I think we need to get that DNA on ice and have everyone who's researching cloning working round the clock non-stop.

oh and its probably going to allow for a number of scientific discoveries about the T-rex that will either make it more or less awesome in peoples eyes, and overall be a nice little boon to the study of the species and perhaps even other creatures that would have been alive at the same time.

but seriously, lock the cloning guys in a room or something and make them work faster with no breaks, I want to see a real life T-rex!

 

[Mr.Mattress]

Considering the only cloning processes we have involve living species acting as the clone's pod, where exactly would we put this DNA to get a T-Rex out of it? A Lizard Egg? A Chicken Egg? An Echidna Egg? Seems to me that until we have better cloning processes, we simply can't bring this species back to life. It will take decades, maybe even a century or two, until it's viably possible to bring T-Rex's back from extinction. On top of that, where would we put these resurrected dinosaurs? How would we keep the species alive? What if they escape and cause havoc on the environment (like any invasive species)?

Wishful thinking, but it's probably best to keep the species extinct. It's not like Humans were the ones that killed them off, and it's not like Mammoths who have living relatives that can effectively hold their DNA and have experience in the modern day, as do other species when it comes to Mammoths.

 

[Extra-Ordinary]

what do I think? I think we need to get that DNA on ice and have everyone who's researching cloning working round the clock non-stop.

oh and its probably going to allow for a number of scientific discoveries about the T-rex that will either make it more or less awesome in peoples eyes, and overall be a nice little boon to the study of the species and perhaps even other creatures that would have been alive at the same time.

but seriously, lock the cloning guys in a room or something and make them work faster with no breaks, I want to see a real life T-rex!

I do as well, but as for the "more or less awesome" question, it'll probably be less for some if the dinosaurs-had-feathers theory holds up.

Quick question, that's still a theory, right? Or was that proven, disproven?

Let's pretend it had feathers anyway, people won't be too blown away to see that the king of the dinosaurs was also the world's largest KFC menu item.
Then those people will be eaten.
It'll be good times.

 

[Tiger King]

what do I think? I think we need to get that DNA on ice and have everyone who's researching cloning working round the clock non-stop.

oh and its probably going to allow for a number of scientific discoveries about the T-rex that will either make it more or less awesome in peoples eyes, and overall be a nice little boon to the study of the species and perhaps even other creatures that would have been alive at the same time.

but seriously, lock the cloning guys in a room or something and make them work faster with no breaks, I want to see a real life T-rex!

I do as well, but as for the "more or less awesome" question, it'll probably be less for some if the dinosaurs-had-feathers theory holds up.

Quick question, that's still a theory, right? Or was that proven, disproven?

Let's pretend it had feathers anyway, people won't be too blown away to see that the king of the dinosaurs was also the world's largest KFC menu item.
Then those people will be eaten.
It'll be good times.

Some dinosaurs had feathers, I am not sure if they all did though.

 

[LostCrusader]

Should having any T-rex cloning programs take place in Australia. They already have all the crazy wildlife, so it would probably fit right in.

 

[mmiki]

In all seriousness though this awesome, what do you guys think?

The scientist that was interviewed disputes this heavily editorialized title. From her twitter feed:

IMPORTANT CLARIFICATION! this paper isn't about DNA we do NOT have DNA: T. rex Found, May Contain DNA http://preview.tinyurl.com/gt3mtcu @sarahwerning

https://twitter.com/ExpeditionLive/status/709759132899917824

WHOA we do NOT have DNA http://preview.tinyurl.com/gt3mtcu . We DO have a wicked cool chemical pregnancy test for theropod #dinosaurs. @sarahwerning

https://twitter.com/ExpeditionLive/status/709764141146349568

From what little I know about these things: our chances of recovering actual dino DNA are slim to none. DNA has a half life of about 500 years. That means the half of the bonds degrade in that time, and then in another 500 a half of what's left, etc. Dinosaur bones are on the scale of 65 million years old, which means that the DNA has long since degraded beyond the point of being readable.

 

[Creator002]

Seriously, though I was born too late to explore the Earth and too early to explore the Universe, the possibilities for science in my lifetime are so fucking exciting.

 

[Fallow]

Should having any T-rex cloning programs take place in Australia. They already have all the crazy wildlife, so it would probably fit right in.

It would get murdered by the sheep in less than a week.

 

[HybridChangeling]

T. rex DNA Jurassic Park

You called?

No but really, this could mean some huge advancements in the scene of vertebrate paleontology. We can see how they were pregnant, see their DNA (if there is any) and how it works.

But lets talk about the Jurassic Park thing. Jurassic Park was thought up when some scientists thought the genetic field WOULD grow as much as it did in the book, although as not as quickly. Unfortunately they didn't anticipate the complexity of genetics as well as the big panic of cloning, so that Alternate Universe wasn't ours. Crichton honestly thought the idea of fixing old DNA with frog/reptile DNA was the answer because legit scientists he spoke to told him that. Nobody back then fully understood the millions of problems that comes from messing with DNA. For one, combining animals from two genus's is both not a good idea, and a near promise of failure. Most therapod dinosaurs were considered birds, so putting frog DNA in birds does not quite work.

Nowadays we believe the only possible way to recreate dinosaurs would be regressing DNA in certain bird species. Give us a decade though, and this theory would be completely dated and "cute". Science tends to outgrow ideas like that very quickly. Also one more thing, DNA generally does not last 65 million years.

 

[the December King]

All those people still daydreaming about cloning/recreating dinosaurs would become very disappointed once they find out they're not getting a lizard dragon, but a giant chicken.

Indeed, I am disappointed that dinosaurs seem to have been just big... birds.

...

Oh, sure, some birds are cool.

I guess.

But not compared to lizard dragons.

 

[Hawki]

Oh sure, it sounds cool NOW, but when mummy T-Rex rampages through San Diego looking for her baby, don't come crying to me.

 

[Cowabungaa]

Except that after 65 million years DNA will be too degraded to be of any cool use.

So nah, there'll probably won't be any real DNA recovered from this find. Still a real interesting find though by the looks of it. You don't find fossils of pregnant dinosaurs all that often.

All those people still daydreaming about cloning/recreating dinosaurs would become very disappointed once they find out they're not getting a lizard dragon, but a giant chicken.

Indeed, I am disappointed that dinosaurs seem to have been just big... birds.

...

Oh, sure, some birds are cool.

I guess.

But not compared to lizard dragons.

But these are giant killer bird-lizard dragons!

*****'ll fuck you up. I prefer it over the drabness we used to have.

 

[spartenX]

snip

damnit reality, why must you always ruin our dreams of mad science!

 

[FPLOON]

So... When do we start splicing it with reptilian-based DNA? An amusement park based on living extinct creatures is the...WAY OF THE FUTURE!

Other than that, sounds like the making of a special episode of A Baby Story...