4 ms·

Researchers Thomas G. Kaye, Gary Gaugler and Zbigniew Sawlowicz found that Schweitzer's samples(The T-Rex soft tissue you mention) contained framboids, and the

Researchers Thomas G. Kaye, Gary Gaugler and Zbigniew Sawlowicz found that Schweitzer's samples(The T-Rex soft tissue you mention) contained framboids, and the apparent soft tissue was essentially pond scum. Through carbon dating, the team also determined that the material was modern, not prehistoric. http://www.plosone.org/article/info%3Adoi%2F10.1371%2Fjournal.pone.0002808 http://www.plosone.org/article/info%3Adoi%2F10.1371%2Fjourna...

metalman 2y ago
There are other claims of soft tissues that are out there.Now that collagen has been proven to exist in dinosaur bone, hopefully the mechanism that allowed that will be understood, alowing a narrower search for other possible soft tissue remains. Our cultural bucket list has resurecting dinosaurs and hover boards on it, so this is good news!
- Syonyk 2y ago
  > ...has resurrecting dinosaurs... You have seen that movie series, right? It doesn't seem to end as well as everyone hoped...
  - marcosdumay 2y ago
    Well, the books had a better point anyway, but the dinosaurs on the movies were unrealistically overpowered to a point where the entire animal kingdom can't really hope to be. It's too bad we can't actually resurrect them, because it would be unironically very cool. And the point of the book still stands anyway.
  - AngryData 2y ago
    The only real problem with that is most dinosaurs lived in a time when there was 30% oxygen in the air. Maybe they could survive a bit at only 20%, but I imagine it would be like someone living on the top of Everest and before long succumbing to the lack of oxygen.
- echelon 2y ago
  Nucleic acids are a more reactive species, and the half life of DNA is only on the order of 500 years or so. The best bet we have to get something resembling dinosaurs is to invent them. By using extant theropod DNA, we could genetically engineer our way backwards. Basically improvisation. The technology for this doesn't exist yet, and the ethics would be extremely questionable.
  - hx2a 2y ago
    I once read a book about this: How to Build a Dinosaur: The New Science of Reverse Evolution, by Jack Horner and James Gorman. The basic idea is that dinosaur DNA is carried around by modern day chickens. The concept seemed pretty out there but the book does make a convincing argument for why it should be possible. The first author is a well known paleontologist, and the book was recommended to me by a paleontologist before I spent the week (as a volunteer) in his field crew. [edit] > The technology for this doesn't exist yet, and the ethics would be extremely questionable. I do agree with this. Just because we can do it, doesn't mean we should.
    - slashdev 2y ago
      If you used DNA across all birds, maybe it would be possible to identify the different bits of dinosaur DNA they inherited. Since they branched from each other at different points in time. And presumably wouldn’t have all lost the same genes.
    - mcswell 2y ago
      Still looking for hen's teeth, but they seem to be as scarce as chicken breasts. (The only breasts found so far are on mammals.)
      - card_zero 2y ago
        "On February 29, 1980 (enough of a rarity in itself), E.J. Kollar and C. Fisher reported an ingenious technique for coaxing chickens to reveal some surprising genetic flexibility retained from a distant past." -- Stephen Jay Gould, Hen's Teeth and Horse's Toes Two pages of technical explanation follow, but they got chicken embryo tissue to produce teeth.
- adrian_b 2y ago
  Even in this discovery, intact collagen molecules have not been recovered, but only collagen molecule fragments. Nevertheless, from many random fragments, with enough luck, one might be able to reconstruct much of the original amino-acid sequence.
all2 2y ago
> Through carbon dating, the team also determined that the material was modern, not prehistoric. We see very clearly how assumptions and reliance on scientific theory eliminates the ability of a scientist to consider possibilities outside of a given dogma.
andrewflnr 2y ago
I remember reading a pretty compelling counter-rebuttal too, though.

metalman 2y ago

There are other claims of soft tissues that are out there.Now that collagen has been proven to exist in dinosaur bone, hopefully the mechanism that allowed that will be understood, alowing a narrower search for other possible soft tissue remains. Our cultural bucket list has resurecting dinosaurs and hover boards on it, so this is good news!

Syonyk 2y ago
> ...has resurrecting dinosaurs... You have seen that movie series, right? It doesn't seem to end as well as everyone hoped...
- marcosdumay 2y ago
  Well, the books had a better point anyway, but the dinosaurs on the movies were unrealistically overpowered to a point where the entire animal kingdom can't really hope to be. It's too bad we can't actually resurrect them, because it would be unironically very cool. And the point of the book still stands anyway.
- AngryData 2y ago
  The only real problem with that is most dinosaurs lived in a time when there was 30% oxygen in the air. Maybe they could survive a bit at only 20%, but I imagine it would be like someone living on the top of Everest and before long succumbing to the lack of oxygen.
echelon 2y ago
Nucleic acids are a more reactive species, and the half life of DNA is only on the order of 500 years or so. The best bet we have to get something resembling dinosaurs is to invent them. By using extant theropod DNA, we could genetically engineer our way backwards. Basically improvisation. The technology for this doesn't exist yet, and the ethics would be extremely questionable.
- hx2a 2y ago
  I once read a book about this: How to Build a Dinosaur: The New Science of Reverse Evolution, by Jack Horner and James Gorman. The basic idea is that dinosaur DNA is carried around by modern day chickens. The concept seemed pretty out there but the book does make a convincing argument for why it should be possible. The first author is a well known paleontologist, and the book was recommended to me by a paleontologist before I spent the week (as a volunteer) in his field crew. [edit] > The technology for this doesn't exist yet, and the ethics would be extremely questionable. I do agree with this. Just because we can do it, doesn't mean we should.
  - slashdev 2y ago
    If you used DNA across all birds, maybe it would be possible to identify the different bits of dinosaur DNA they inherited. Since they branched from each other at different points in time. And presumably wouldn’t have all lost the same genes.
  - mcswell 2y ago
    Still looking for hen's teeth, but they seem to be as scarce as chicken breasts. (The only breasts found so far are on mammals.)
    - card_zero 2y ago
      "On February 29, 1980 (enough of a rarity in itself), E.J. Kollar and C. Fisher reported an ingenious technique for coaxing chickens to reveal some surprising genetic flexibility retained from a distant past." -- Stephen Jay Gould, Hen's Teeth and Horse's Toes Two pages of technical explanation follow, but they got chicken embryo tissue to produce teeth.
adrian_b 2y ago
Even in this discovery, intact collagen molecules have not been recovered, but only collagen molecule fragments. Nevertheless, from many random fragments, with enough luck, one might be able to reconstruct much of the original amino-acid sequence.

all2 2y ago

> Through carbon dating, the team also determined that the material was modern, not prehistoric. We see very clearly how assumptions and reliance on scientific theory eliminates the ability of a scientist to consider possibilities outside of a given dogma.

andrewflnr 2y ago

I remember reading a pretty compelling counter-rebuttal too, though.