Real-Life 'Jurassic World' Dinosaurs May Be 10 Years Off

 

 

The recently released movie “Jurassic World” stars a fictitious chicken-based dinosaur called the Indominous Rex that was created in a lab. Scientist claim ‘Jurassic World’ dinosaurs might not be far from real. Finding intact dinosaur DNA from fossils is highly unlikely, as the DNA in cells starts to come apart once the cell dies. However, dinosaur DNA is much more easily available than most people might think. Chickens and birds carry big chunks of dinosaur DNA than actual fossils. Alternation with chicken and bird DNA could possibly create what could be a miniature version of a dinosaur. Researchers from Yale and Harvard recently engineered a bird’s beak into a dinosaur looking mouth. However other body parts still need to be worked on, such as turning the wings back into arms and hands. This research is not only just for fun, but it can be a useful tool in being able to learn how to properly switch genes on and off which can be applied in the medical and nutritional fields.

This article was extremely interesting to read. Being able to alter chicken DNA into creating a miniature dinosaur seems too good to be true, however this article showed me that is not the case. I remember previously learning how fossilized mosquitoes could contain dinosaur DNA in the blood and be used to genetically engineer a dinosaur, however this might be too difficult to accomplish as DNA begins to fall apart once the cell dies. It seems as if the next few decades will be an interesting timeline for genetic breakthroughs.

Original Link

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.