Potential Recovery of Dinosaur DNA!

 This article details an account which claims that $125 million-year-old DNA has been recovered from a dinosaur called Caudipteryx. Scientists claim that the fragments of chromatin and nuclei within the fossil could contain preserved DNA, which could then be extracted and studied. However, mass skepticism surrounds this idea. Currently, the oldest sequenced DNA belongs to a million year old woolly mammoth, and, given how long ago dinosaurs went extinct, the idea of sequencing multi-millions of years old DNA is nearly unheard of… This is due to DNA's fragility. The dinosaur DNA was allegedly extracted from fossilized femur cartilage, found in China. This fossil was exceptionally preserved, as the site it was found at is known for fossilization via fine volcanic ash- prime preservation conditions. However, the main concern surrounding this is the idea that the genetic material being found could actually be from microbes on the fossils, not the dinosaurs themselves. This is a problem that researchers commonly run into, not only with dinosaurs, but other ancient organisms as well.

Personally, I think that the concept of being able to study ancient DNA, and then further learn from it in the present day, is fantastical. However the obvious problems of being unable to differentiate between modern organisms and fossil DNA is a major setback. Additionally, due to DNA's tendency to break down over time, unfortunately, I am also a skeptic in regards to whether or not DNA was actually recovered from this dinosaur. However, if somehow we were able to develop a way to differentiate modern versus ancient DNA, I think it would be amazing to compare ancient DNA to modern DNA, and see just how similar dinosaur DNA is to that of modern organisms. 

Prehistoric Evolution of Birds

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/08/25/health/the-link-between-dinosaurs-and-birds.html

http://www.nhm.org/site/research-collections/dinosaur-institute/dinosaurs/birds-late-evolution-dinosaurs

Archaeopteryx; a very early prehistoric bird, dating back 150 million years ago during the Jurassic period, it is one of the oldest-known birds. Based on bone structure it looked to be part bird and part dinosaur. Unlike modern-day birds, it had teeth, three claws on each wing, a flat sternum, belly ribs, and a long, bony tail. However, like modern-day birds, it had feathers, a lightly-built body with hollow bones, a wishbone and reduced fingers. This animal may have been able to fly but if so not very far and not very well. Scientists took a look at dinosaur brains to trace this hyperinflation and they found that Archaeopteryx’s brain fell in between that of distantly related theropods, such as Tyrannosaurus rex, and living birds. 

I find this extremely interesting because birds may not be the smartest of all creatures but there are a variety of species of birds, each with it's own story. No matter where you go in the world you will always come across some type of bird, they fill the Earth and are able to live in any environment.  

Dino-Chicken--Not of the Nugget Variety

With the recent Jurassic World movie, even this generation's young people know about the disastrous outcome of when scientists "play god" and create a park full of dinosaurs. Despite this, dinosaur breeding may be closer than one may think. The Indominous rex was one of the unlikely stars of the recent Jurrasic World movie, for a good reason. While fossilized dinosaur DNA that is still viable has yet to be found, remnants of the prehistoric code that existed in dinosaurs still exists in chickens today. Quoted in an article on livescience, James Horner, the inspiration for the original Jurassic Park's Alan Grant, says, "Chickens and all birds are carrying much bigger chunks of dinosaur DNA than we are ever likely to find in the fossil record." He believes that, because DNA tends to come apart after a cell dies, there wouldn't be anything left after millions of years.
However, in a bird, there may be enough groundwork and prehistoric DNA that they could be essentially reverted to resemble a dinosaur. It's already been proven that birds can be transgenically created to have teeth and a team from Yale and Harvard recently retro-engineered a bird's beak to look like a dinosaur-looking mouth. Horner believes that all that is left is to recreate the tails and transform the wings back into an arm and hand. He admits a miniature dinosaur may be about ten years off.
While this is scary, much like Grant I would love my own miniature pet dinosaur, but I do believe this whole exercise would anger people who are traditionally against GMOs. This involved completely modifying an organism to create something completely different which leaves a weird taste in my mouth.

How to create a dinosaur

An interview was conducted by Live Science on a paleontologist who has a fascination with dinosaurs.  Jack Horner wishes to own a dinosaur of his own one day by modifying the genes of a chicken to create features of ancient dinosaurs.  Horner was an adviser on the Jurassic Park set and even excavated a dinosaur nesting site in Montana.  Horner was the one who suggested that the animals were fast growing, warm-blooded, and that the parents cared for their young from this excavation.  Now at the forefront of his research, he believes he can hatch a dinosaur.  Sometimes organisms carry their evolutionary history with them in their genes. Human embryos, for example, have temporary tails, which are absorbed by the body during development. Rarely, babies are born with vestigial tails, the result of scrambled genetic processes that prevent the tail from getting re-absorbed. These evolutionary remnants are called atavisms.  Horner says that there is enough atavisms discovered in birds to make the idea of "reverse-engineering" a possibility.  He is trying to find a way to reactivate these atavisms.  Once he finds out how to reactive the atavisms, he would be able to de-evolve a chicken and make it a chickensaurus.  He says you would have to mess with the DNA a lot to make it something else other than a modified chicken however.  You can find more information here.