Posts tagged dinosaur
Could Jurassic Park have been right?: Venomous Dinos
Jan 28th
65 million years ago one of the most amazing and dynamic groups of organisms vanished from our planet, the Dinosaurs. All that remains are fossil records with gaping holes and missing data.
Only recently has science began to unveil some of the mysteries of these behemoths. For decades it was believed that ancient DNA, proteins, and soft tissue could not be preserved over millions of years. Now, during the last 2 years, soft tissue was discovered deep inside the thigh bones of T-Rex.
There are times that inspiration for truth comes from science fiction, such as the best selling novel and blockbuster More >
Chikafrogonewtasaurus
Sep 4th
Being an educator at the DNALC does not mean that everything has to be all “DNA”! Sometimes, it’s all about proteins. My background is in ecology and evolution, with a particular bent towards dinosaurs. In 2005, dinosaur paleontologists decided to slice the leg bone of a 68 million year old Tyrannosaurus rex, just to see what it looked like inside. They were in for a surprise. There were remnants of soft tissue – still present after 68 million years!!
In 2007, they were able to identify and compare seven protein sequences. Three of these proteins seemed to be closely related to chickens. More >
