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Scientists Find Soft Tissue in T-Rex Fossil
Posted by
CmdrTaco
on Thu Mar 24, 2005 03:41 PM
from the and-it-actually-tasted-like-chicken dept.
from the and-it-actually-tasted-like-chicken dept.
douglips writes "Reuters is running a story about a shocking development in paleontology: A T-Rex thigh bone fossil was reluctantly broken to fit in a transport helicopter, and inside soft tissue was found. It appears to include blood vessels and bone cells. Scientists hope to isolate proteins, and perhaps even DNA."
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Let the cloning begin! (Score:5, Funny)
When I get my T-Rex... (Score:5, Funny)
Parent
Re:When I get my T-Rex... (Score:5, Funny)
-Kelt
(must credit the wife for that one)
Parent
Re:Let the cloning begin! (Score:5, Funny)
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Thank god for Jurassic Park... (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Thank god for Jurassic Park... (Score:5, Funny)
Also, do NOT run directly to the shitter.
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Re:Thank god for Jurassic Park... (Score:5, Funny)
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Re:Thank god for Jurassic Park... (Score:5, Funny)
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Re:Thank god for Jurassic Park... (Score:5, Funny)
Which is why I never, ever discourage someone from eating at McDonalds.
Obseity in others is your best defense mechanism.
Parent
Re:Thank god for Jurassic Park... (Score:5, Interesting)
The detail about T-Rex's having the inability to see moving objects was thrown in by Michael Crichton to support his belief that scientists' filling in the ancient dinosaur DNA gaps with modern-day amphibian DNA would lead to various "features" being transposed across the species. Some amphibians of today truly cannot see inanimate objects.
This was a necessary plot point in the story... Jurassic Park was designed to continue only with Human support (no natural breeding), but "nature found a way" when the abilities of some amphibians to spontaneously change sexes was found in the JP dinosaurs.
To recap, it wasn't a random guess... Just a plot twist by a clever author. There's no evidence to suggest that ancient dinosaurs couldn't see inanimate objects. Predators like T-Rex's probably couldn't survive like that.
Parent
Re:Thank god for Jurassic Park... (Score:5, Interesting)
Birds too, I believe, cannot see things that do not move, and birds are believed to be whats left of dinosours as they evolved to today.
I've read that if it were possible for a human to control the natural eye jitteriness and just focus absolutely still, the image you see would fade away to nothing. The eye needs constant movement to be able to keep updating what you are seeing.
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Re:Thank god for Jurassic Park... (Score:5, Funny)
It'd be amusing if the T-Rex had the parrot's vocal abilities to mimic human voices.
Of course, the only words they'd be exposed to and thus be able to mimic would be various versions of "AAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHH!!!!" and "OH DEAR GOD NORRUUUURRRGGGGLLLE!!!!" and that would just scare other people off.
A sad life, the T-Rex's.
Sigh.
Parent
I for one.... (Score:5, Funny)
Lessons (Score:5, Funny)
Modern helicopters are just too small!
Precedent (Score:5, Informative)
Of course getting actual DNA from these tissues will be a long shot due to its fragile nature, but protein sequence may prove very informative in letting us define exactly where genetic lineages have gone over evolution.
Re:Precedent (Score:5, Informative)
This T-Rex tissue is apparently a bigger deal than the fossilized egg contents she found previously though. From TFA:
"Preservation of this extent, where you still have this flexibility and transparency, has never been seen in a dinosaur before." Feathers, hair and fossilized egg contents yes, but not truly soft tissue.
Parent
Re:Precedent (Score:5, Funny)
"Oh darn, I have yet again rented the small helicopter, what a klutz I am. It seems that will have to cut up this precious fossil that is too large to get on board. Woe is me, had we brought the large helicopter, this here fossile would have been taken to museum without having been chopped up... oh, look at that..."
Clever lass.
Parent
Re:Precedent (Score:5, Funny)
Of course getting actual DNA from these tissues will be a long shot due to its fragile nature, but protein sequence may prove very informative in letting us define exactly where genetic lineages have gone over evolution.
Thanks for spoiling our fun. Can we get back to the Jurassic Park jokes please?
Parent
Finally (Score:5, Funny)
But how? (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:But how? (Score:5, Insightful)
Parent
A theory (Score:5, Interesting)
Parent
Peat Bogs (Score:5, Informative)
In this case, the acidity is unlikely to be a factor, but the totally anaerobic conditions may be. It is possible that any bacteria in the soft tissue simply didn't have what they needed in order to consume the organic material, and therefore didn't. A slight variant on the situation with peat, but essentially the same idea.
A second option - less likely, but possible - would be a variant on the way fresh produce is kept fresh today. Modern food isn't always kept with preservatives. Rather, the packaging company uses a medium blast from a radioactive caesium isotope. This kills off all of the bacteria present.
Radioactive materials certainly occur naturally, and there are indeed cases of naturally-occuring nuclear reactors. It is entirely within the realms of possibility that natural radioactivity kept the inside of the bones sterilized, so that organic decay could not take place.
The odds of that being the case are slim, but not quite none. However, it raises questions on what may be found in areas where such preservation techniques may actually have occured.
Parent
Promising for archaeology (Score:5, Interesting)
Fuck (Score:5, Funny)
Alternatively do any of you know anything about UNIX systems?
Re:Fuck (Score:5, Funny)
Parent
Re:Fuck (Score:5, Funny)
Alternatively do any of you know anything about UNIX systems?
No problem. When the T-Rexes start attacking, we can simply get our handy chaos theorist to upload a virus into the mother T-Rex and just pray that the T-Rex is Mac compatible.
Parent
Re:Fuck (Score:5, Funny)
Alternatively do any of you know anything about UNIX systems?
I watched Jurassic Park in my early teens, and that movie ruined my knowledge of UNIX. For years I thought all UNIX systems had cool graphical UIs like that, and then I tried a real one and was disappointed by these crazy things called "characters". Now I'm a Windows user :(
Parent
This may prove Homer Simpson wrong.. (Score:5, Funny)
Marge: Like what?
Homer: . . . A Dinosaur!
I want to be the first 35 year old kid on my block with a T-Rex. Leash laws be damned!
What I want to knkow is.. (Score:5, Funny)
Hello?... Is this thing on?
MSNBC has pictures of the meat (Score:5, Informative)
in my professional paleontological opinion (not), it needs a nice marinade
fre up the BBQ, lets see what T Rex tastes like
why? Why? WHY? (Score:5, Funny)
Now there's going to be running and screaming, and it's all going to be a big huge mess.
Possible viruses? (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:Possible viruses? (Score:5, Insightful)
Parent
Forced? (Score:5, Funny)
Who was heading this team, Homer Simpson?
I can just see him now:
Homer: "Grrr..."
Lisa: "Dad, it's just too big to fit in there."
Homer: "Nonsense Lisa, daddy will just shove it in....Grrr....here it goes...." *snap* "...DOH!"
See the MSNBC write-up (Score:5, Informative)
Crazy sounding 'but hear me out' prediction (Score:5, Interesting)
Sure, researchers will pioneer the basic technology, but the people who do the large scale cloning won't be theme park owners, scientists, or preservationists.
They'll be food producers.
We're at the top of the foodchain, and foods like Fugu (deadly blowfish), sushi, and... well, many asian dishes, prove that we're running out of new stuff to eat. There are amazing strides being made by cooks, and there are only so many things people can try before they die of old age, but more and more people are getting adventuresome and want to eat things that nobody else has.
Enter: The brontoburger.
Who here hasn't salivated at the thought of carving into a big old dinosaur steak? Who here can forget the longing eyes they cast on Fred Flintstone's car as it tipped over under the weight of the massive dino-ribs he had just ordered?
Predictions:
1. Herbivores of various types will be bred in captivity for their meat and leather.
2. The rich will beat a path to their doorstep for the exclusivity of eating prehistoric food.
3. In an almost defiant gesture of the universe, the meat will undoubtedly taste like chicken. Dinosaurs are, after all, big ol' birds by most reckoning.
You may laugh now, but when you're cleaning the last bit of Tony Romas Olde Fashioned Allosaurus (like grandpa used to make 'em) Ribs, remember where you heard it first. Or second, or whenever this message drifted across your desk.
Re:Crazy sounding 'but hear me out' prediction (Score:5, Insightful)
Sorry, but the brontoburger [snopes.com] already exists!
Parent
In response I'm joining... (Score:5, Funny)
The obligitory Matrix Quote
"We're gonna need Guns...Lots of Guns"
Re:Jurassic Park (Score:5, Interesting)
Parent
Methods of Soft Tissue Preservation (Score:5, Informative)
Soft part preservation - Soft tissues are preserved only under exceptional conditions. Examples include preservation of Siberian Mammoths (freezing in permafrost), Pleistocene cave faunas and older mummified remains (dessication), and insects and small animals preserved in lithified tree sap (amber). Soft parts can also be preserved after being replaced by minerals.
Original hard parts - Resistant materials such as calcium, silica, and calcium phosphate are sometimes preserved as original hard parts in shells, bones, and teeth.
Recrystallized hard parts - It is common, however, for original hard parts to be altered during diagenesis and after lithification. Unstable minerals such as aragonite will recrystallize to a more stable form such as calcite. Mineral crystals within an organism's hard parts my regrow to become larger and consolidated. Often recrystallization destroys fine, internal detail within a fossil.
Carbonization - Organic-laden hard parts and soft parts can be preserved as a thin film of organic carbon. This occurs when the organic material is preserved undecayed through burial. As heat increases throughout burial the volitile components of the organic material (N, O, H, and S) are driven off leaving a thin film of black carbon behind.
Replacement - Chemical reactions that occur during diagenesis can result in the molecule by molecule replacement of mineral for mineral or mineral for organic tissue. Replacement can often preserve exquisite detail in fossils.
Silicification - replacement of calcite by silica.
Pyritization - replacement of calcite or soft tissues with pyrite
Phosphatization - replacement of low phosphate apatite with high phosphate apatite.
Permineralization - Porous organic structures such as wood and bone are often preserved by the mineral infilling of the pore spaces. A common way of 'petrifying' wood and dinosaur bone.
Source [hofstra.edu]
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It would have been helpful if the scientists had provided a hypothesis on the preservation of the tissues. I googled this phenomenon and there seems to be a rather broad definition for "soft tissue". Soft Tissue, it appears, can be preserved in many ways (see above). I'm curious as to how this tissue survived micro-organisms, mineralization/calcification, carbonization, or simply, or even dehydration. How was it able to remain soft enough to be squeezed?
Parent
Re:Jurassic Park (Score:5, Insightful)
Kinda shocked that no one else mentioned it yet, but...
The T-Rex, like most dinosaurs and like most modern lizards, laid eggs.
If we could get a viable T-Rex zygote, we could almost certainly implant it in the egg of any larger still-living lizard (monitor?) without much difficulty.
But after this long, even if we found a perfectly preserved T-Rex frozen in ice, it would not have a single viable cell in its body.
As the best possible outside chance for making a living T-Rex, we might manage to get enough overlapping DNA fragments to piece them together, then manually generate a complete genome for the beastie. Allowing for that (IMO, physically possible if not technologically feasible yet) that, we would still need to get a few intact T-Rex mitochondria, which I suspect will not happen for the same reason we won't find a whole viable T-Rex cell - Namely, DNA breaks down at a relatively steady rate, and after 150 million years, you don't have many long runs of it left intact.
Parent
Re:Jurassic Park (Score:5, Funny)
God kills dinosaur.
God creates man.
Man kills God.
Man creates dinosaur.
Dinosaur eats man.
Woman inherits the earth.
Parent
Re:Jurassic Park (Score:5, Funny)
Parent
Re:Just in time (Score:5, Informative)
>
>does it taste like chicken?
Considering that birds are the distant descendants of dinosaurs, and considering that the article [newscientist.com] someone else referred to describes traces of proteins from 70M-year-old eggs as bearing "strong similarities to proteins from chicken eggs.", I'd bet good money that the answer is probably "yes".
The dino in the NewScientist article was a herbivore, and T. Rex was either a carnivore or carrion-eater; so maybe it'll taste more like eagle or vulture.
Personally, I've never eaten eagle or vulture. Anyone know wha-yeah, I figured as much. Chicken.
Parent
Re:Uh oh. (Score:5, Informative)
Parent
Re:so who gets to patent T-Rex DNA? (Score:5, Funny)
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Re:Oh, yeah! (Score:5, Funny)
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Re:Young earth (Score:5, Insightful)
Remember, there is still lots of other geological evidence that the earth is WAY more than 6000 years old. The find is interesting, but you certainly can't jump to that conclusion from it.
Of course, using logic isn't the strong suit of the ID\Young Earth\Creationism set anyway, so I fully predict those guys will show up here in force with a bunch of "I told you so" posts, mostly with out actually reading TFA.
Parent
Re:Dinosaurs are a myth (Score:5, Funny)
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