A few weeks ago DougSmith posted an article claiming similarities in the DNA of a chicken and a T-Rex (or some other dinosaur).  The study was disputed and the refuter made a convincing case.  However, watching tv on Sunday I saw a Discovery Channel program on the similarities of bird and dinosaur DNA.  The idea was that the dinosaur DNA was still present in bird DNA.  However, over time evolution caused changes in the parts of the DNA that activate and de-activate certain traits.  One scientist figured out a way to cause a bird to grow a tail.  he speculated that he could cause the development of teeth and other dinosaur traits.  It was a realinsight into the nuts and bolts of evolution. 

Anyway it seemed to confirm the results reported in that article.  The article below echoes much of what I saw.  In the process, I learned that they actually recovered unfossilized dinsoaur flesh in a fossil.

http://www.mailonsunday.co.uk/sciencetech/article-1026340/Jurassic-Park-comes-true-scientists-brink-bringing-dinosaurs-life-thanks-discovery-DNA-relics-humble-chicken.html

JRM5001 - 24 June 2008 10:14 AM

A few weeks ago DougSmith posted an article claiming similarities in the DNA of a chicken and a T-Rex (or some other dinosaur).  The study was disputed and the refuter made a convincing case.  However, watching tv on Sunday I saw a Discovery Channel program on the similarities of bird and dinosaur DNA.  The idea was that the dinosaur DNA was still present in bird DNA.  However, over time evolution caused changes in the parts of the DNA that activate and de-activate certain traits.  One scientist figured out a way to cause a bird to grow a tail.  he speculated that he could cause the development of teeth and other dinosaur traits.  It was a realinsight into the nuts and bolts of evolution. 

Anyway it seemed to confirm the results reported in that article.  The article below echoes much of what I saw.  In the process, I learned that they actually recovered unfossilized dinsoaur flesh in a fossil.

http://www.mailonsunday.co.uk/sciencetech/article-1026340/Jurassic-Park-comes-true-scientists-brink-bringing-dinosaurs-life-thanks-discovery-DNA-relics-humble-chicken.html

I’ve merged this with the prior thread because it appears to be the same story. The same people are involved (Mary Schweitzer) and the same materials are discussed. It would appear that they found collagen and not DNA. If so then the MailOnline story is simply wrong about a lot of the issues, and further it sounds like Schweitzer may be guilty of hyping her results for a TV show. Shades of cold fusion?

To be fair, it doesn’t sound like Schweitzer is the one talking about DNA in the MailOnline article, and she certainly didn’t in her radiuo interview. She was very clear that collagen was what was identified and that it was the structural and chemical similarity to bird collagen that was the point of her research. Some of the other folks in the article seem to be the ones trying to capitalize on the Jurassic Park idea to get attention for their attempts to find dinasaur DNA.

Yes, good points Brennen. But one wonders who got the TV crew involved and what sorts of discussions went on behind the scenes to hype the Jurassic Park implications. Collagen alone, obviously, has no such implications.

The show I saw was not based on the collagen and Schweitzer.  Given the fact that it appears that by throwing the right genetic switches in bird DNA, one could get something very close to a dinosaur I thought might be of interest to the people who responded to that post.  I was also amazed that they recovered actual dinosaur flesh.

The work was from a guy named Carroll and another geneticist whose name I cannot remember.  Incidentally Jack Horner was involved in the show and mentioned in the article, that may explain the Jurassic Park references.

Not sure if this was discussed but i’m watching this show Wipeout on national geo and they mention that the birds would have survived the extinction because they could fly over great distance to find food where as the dinosaurs just starved to death