Slashdot Mirror
T. Rex Protein Analysis Supports Dinosaur-Bird Link
LanMan04 writes "For the first time, researchers have read the biological signature of a Tyrannosaur — a signature that confirms the increasingly accepted view that modern birds are the descendants of dinosaurs. Analyzing the organic material (collagen protein) found inside the unique fossil linked the collagen to several extant species. The bottom line is that the T. rex's biological signature was most like a bird's, at least based on the first fragmentary data. "It looks like chicken may be the closest among all species that are present in today's databases for proteins and genomes," one of the scientists interviewed said."
Now I know why ... everything tastes like chicken
Interesting resolution to an old debate:
Which came first, the chicken or the egg? T-Rex!
I've always thought roosters had that look in their eye.. you know.... like they'd eat you in a second, if they could.
https://www.eff.org/https-everywhere
"Dinosaur fossils? God put those there to test our faith."
"I think God put you here to test my faith, Dude."
The enemies of Democracy are
I, for one, welcome our new edible and delicious overloads (hmmm extra crispy or original recipe ....)
I'm more curious about what methods they used to "isolate the collagen proteins". From my understanding ALL fossils are not the real bone or organic matter that the animal once was, but a mineral deposit in the shape of the once present organic material. So how did you get T.Rex dna out of a non-organic rock formed like a bone?
I'll give it a try.
I met a traveller from an antique land
Who said: Two former drumsticks, turn'd to stone,
Stand in Wyoming. Near them on the sand,
Half sunk, a shatter'd visage lies, whose frown
And razor teeth and sneer of cold command
Tell that its sculptor well those proteins read
Which yet survive, stamp'd in this lifeless thing,
The hand that mock'd them and the mouth that fed.
And in the fossil rock these words appear:
"My name is Tyrannosaur, Chicken King"
Look on my works, ye primates, and cluck!"
Nothing beside remains: round the decay
Of that colossal Rex, asteroid-fuck'd,
The lone and level sands stretch far away.
- With apologies to Percy Bysshe Shelley. I think it's still a sonnet.
In fact, Ornithiscia one of the latin names to describe a certain dinosaur lineage translates as "bird hips" -- but in fact birds descended from the , or Saurischia, or "lizard hip" dinosaurs.
The curious thing that birds, dinosaurs and mammals all have in common is the placement of the legs underneath the body. This is what made it possible for dinosaurs and mammals to get so big. Other lizards are stuck with their legs sticking out to the sides, which limits weight-bearing capacity and means the really big ones are primarily aquatic.
What makes this curious is that this particular innovation appears to have only evolved once in some common ancestor of mammals and dinosaurs. This suggests it must be very unlikely to evolve--much less likely than other things like wings and eyes, which have evolved independently many times. Maybe the early fossil record will eventually show that it in fact arose more than once, but it's such a huge advantage that if it were possible to get it easily one would think that it would be done more often, and it is odd that no other reptile has ever pulled it off.
Blasphemy is a human right. Blasphemophobia kills.