T-Rex related to a chicken?
What is more interesting that T-Rex may have been related to chickens or the fact they have found protein in a 68,000,000 year old bone? 68,000,000 years is a long time, would one single molecule still be alive?
CWatson
http://news.aol.com/topnews/articles/_a/genes-show-t-rex-related-to-chickens/20070412165109990001?ncid=NWS00010000000001
quote:Genes Show T. Rex Related to Chickens
By Jeanna Bryner
(April 12) - An adolescent female Tyrannosaurus rex died 68 million years ago, but its bones still contain intact soft tissue, including the oldest preserved proteins ever found, scientists say.
And a comparison of the protein's chemical structure to a slew of other species showed an evolutionary link between T. rex and chickens, bolstering the idea that birds evolved from dinosaurs.
The collagen proteins were found hidden inside the leg bone of the T. rex fossil, according to two studies published in the April 13 issue of the journal Science. Collagen is the main ingredient of connective tissue in animals and is found in cartilage, ligaments, tendons, hooves, bones and teeth. It yields gelatin and glue when boiled in water.
"I mean can you imagine pulling a bone out the ground after 68 million years and then getting intact protein sequences?" said John Asara of Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center and Harvard Medical School, lead author of one of the studies. "That's just mind boggling how much preservation there is in these bones."
The previous record holder for the oldest protein tissue belonged to collagen found in a 100,000- to 300,000-year-old mammoth bone.
The new finding will be viewed skeptically, admitted one of the researchers involved in the two studies. "It's very, very, very controversial because most people have gone on record saying there's an absolute time limit to anything that's protein or DNA," said Mary Schweitzer, a molecular paleontologist at North Carolina State University
Matthew Carrano, a dinosaur curator at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C., who was not involved in either study, said the protein findings are robust. "Here are the pieces of the protein. If you're going to refute this you have to explain how these pieces got in there," Carrano said in a telephone interview.
"It's not another molecule mimicking the protein and giving off a similar signal. This is the actual sequence."
Bone Basics
The T. rex leg bone, which looks like a giant drumstick, was unearthed by Jack Horner of the Museum of the Rockies in 2003 in the Hell Creek Formation, a fossil-packed area that spans Montana, Wyoming and North and South Dakota.
In 2005, Schweitzer and her colleagues reported they had found evidence for soft, stretchy tissue sealed inside the dinosaur's fossilized femur. The finding made headlines, but was also questioned by some experts.
The hard stuff of bones is all that usually remains when a dead organism is buried beneath layers of earth. Usually, microbes devour all the easy-to-access soft tissue. So finding relatively intact soft tissue was a major claim.
"For centuries it was believed that the process of fossilization destroyed any original material, consequently no one looked carefully at really old bones," Schweitzer said.
To gather her evidence, Schweitzer ran chemical analyses, finding the tissue reacted with antibodies from collagen taken from chicken and other avian tissues. Also, images from high-powered microscopes revealed a repeating series of thin stripes characteristic of collagen fibers.
Asara then ran the tiny samples through a mass spectrometer, a machine that measures mass and charge of individual molecules, finding the relic tissue was indeed collagen.
Dinosaur-Bird Link
A comparison by Asara's team of the amino-acid sequence from the T. rex collagen to a database of existing sequences from modern species showed it shared a remarkable similarity to that of chickens. Amino acids are the molecular building blocks of proteins; there are 20 of them used by organisms to build proteins, and their precise order is determined by instructions found in DNA.
"I'm grateful that he was able to get the [amino acid] sequences out. That's the Holy Grail," Schweitzer told LiveScience.
This finding supports the idea that chickens and T. rex share an evolutionary link and bolsters previous research showing that birds evolved from dinosaurs and that birds are living dinosaurs.
"Here we have a real molecule from a real dinosaur, and it's much more similar to a bird than it is to anything else," Carrano said.
The discovery will open the door for a suite of studies once thought off limits in the field of paleontology. For instance, proteins could supply more direct evidence about evolutionary links between living and extinct organisms.
"Protein sequences often reflect little bits of the evolutionary history of animals, how they are different or similar among groups," Carrano said. "This can provide information for extinct animals on how they are related through evolution to living groups of animals if we could pull out these kinds of molecules."
Plus, the process of fossilization remains somewhat of a mystery. "This is a really valuable window into [fossilization] because here you have some of the original material preserved," Carrano said.
"We would never have asked a question that required this information in the past and that shut the whole door on those avenues of research. And now they are potentially open to us," Carrano said. [/B]
CWatson
http://news.aol.com/topnews/articles/_a/genes-show-t-rex-related-to-chickens/20070412165109990001?ncid=NWS00010000000001
quote:Genes Show T. Rex Related to Chickens
By Jeanna Bryner
(April 12) - An adolescent female Tyrannosaurus rex died 68 million years ago, but its bones still contain intact soft tissue, including the oldest preserved proteins ever found, scientists say.
And a comparison of the protein's chemical structure to a slew of other species showed an evolutionary link between T. rex and chickens, bolstering the idea that birds evolved from dinosaurs.
The collagen proteins were found hidden inside the leg bone of the T. rex fossil, according to two studies published in the April 13 issue of the journal Science. Collagen is the main ingredient of connective tissue in animals and is found in cartilage, ligaments, tendons, hooves, bones and teeth. It yields gelatin and glue when boiled in water.
"I mean can you imagine pulling a bone out the ground after 68 million years and then getting intact protein sequences?" said John Asara of Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center and Harvard Medical School, lead author of one of the studies. "That's just mind boggling how much preservation there is in these bones."
The previous record holder for the oldest protein tissue belonged to collagen found in a 100,000- to 300,000-year-old mammoth bone.
The new finding will be viewed skeptically, admitted one of the researchers involved in the two studies. "It's very, very, very controversial because most people have gone on record saying there's an absolute time limit to anything that's protein or DNA," said Mary Schweitzer, a molecular paleontologist at North Carolina State University
Matthew Carrano, a dinosaur curator at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C., who was not involved in either study, said the protein findings are robust. "Here are the pieces of the protein. If you're going to refute this you have to explain how these pieces got in there," Carrano said in a telephone interview.
"It's not another molecule mimicking the protein and giving off a similar signal. This is the actual sequence."
Bone Basics
The T. rex leg bone, which looks like a giant drumstick, was unearthed by Jack Horner of the Museum of the Rockies in 2003 in the Hell Creek Formation, a fossil-packed area that spans Montana, Wyoming and North and South Dakota.
In 2005, Schweitzer and her colleagues reported they had found evidence for soft, stretchy tissue sealed inside the dinosaur's fossilized femur. The finding made headlines, but was also questioned by some experts.
The hard stuff of bones is all that usually remains when a dead organism is buried beneath layers of earth. Usually, microbes devour all the easy-to-access soft tissue. So finding relatively intact soft tissue was a major claim.
"For centuries it was believed that the process of fossilization destroyed any original material, consequently no one looked carefully at really old bones," Schweitzer said.
To gather her evidence, Schweitzer ran chemical analyses, finding the tissue reacted with antibodies from collagen taken from chicken and other avian tissues. Also, images from high-powered microscopes revealed a repeating series of thin stripes characteristic of collagen fibers.
Asara then ran the tiny samples through a mass spectrometer, a machine that measures mass and charge of individual molecules, finding the relic tissue was indeed collagen.
Dinosaur-Bird Link
A comparison by Asara's team of the amino-acid sequence from the T. rex collagen to a database of existing sequences from modern species showed it shared a remarkable similarity to that of chickens. Amino acids are the molecular building blocks of proteins; there are 20 of them used by organisms to build proteins, and their precise order is determined by instructions found in DNA.
"I'm grateful that he was able to get the [amino acid] sequences out. That's the Holy Grail," Schweitzer told LiveScience.
This finding supports the idea that chickens and T. rex share an evolutionary link and bolsters previous research showing that birds evolved from dinosaurs and that birds are living dinosaurs.
"Here we have a real molecule from a real dinosaur, and it's much more similar to a bird than it is to anything else," Carrano said.
The discovery will open the door for a suite of studies once thought off limits in the field of paleontology. For instance, proteins could supply more direct evidence about evolutionary links between living and extinct organisms.
"Protein sequences often reflect little bits of the evolutionary history of animals, how they are different or similar among groups," Carrano said. "This can provide information for extinct animals on how they are related through evolution to living groups of animals if we could pull out these kinds of molecules."
Plus, the process of fossilization remains somewhat of a mystery. "This is a really valuable window into [fossilization] because here you have some of the original material preserved," Carrano said.
"We would never have asked a question that required this information in the past and that shut the whole door on those avenues of research. And now they are potentially open to us," Carrano said. [/B]
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It's pretty well accepted that modern birds are related to the dinosaurs. A few years ago a fossil was found that was of a flying reptile and it had the hollow feathers like a modern bird.
Watch a rooster sometimes. The eye movements, the jerky head movements, the ability of chickens to lay eggs are all tracable back to dinosaurs.
The jump was accomplished when the dinos adapted to cooler weather by mutating and regulating their body temperture, they became warm blooded.0 -
naah! can't be. it's all fake. 0 -
This is hardly news. Birds evolved from dinoasaurs. It only makes sense. 0 -
To answer your question, the more interesting thing is that they were able to extract 68,000,000 year old proteins. The suggestion that birds are the last dinosaur clade is pretty old news, even if it is cool news.
Who would have thought that organic molecules could be preserved for tens of millions of years? That's the real news, here.0 -
Well bang a gong get it on!!!
Mark Bolin does kinda' look like a chicken...
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quote:Originally posted by spurgemastur
Who would have thought that organic molecules could be preserved for tens of millions of years? That's the real news, here.
Exactly. That is what I feel is the interesting part of the article, but I find it hard to believe any organic material could survive 68,000,000 years so how did it get there?
CW0 -
Maybe they'll find some DNA stuck in there somewhere and be able to clone a T-Rex.[:D] 0 -
quote:Originally posted by spurgemastur
To answer your question, the more interesting thing is that they were able to extract 68,000,000 year old proteins. The suggestion that birds are the last dinosaur clade is pretty old news, even if it is cool news.
Who would have thought that organic molecules could be preserved for tens of millions of years? That's the real news, here.
To put it another way, birds did not evolve from dinosaurs, they are dinosaurs. Some taxonomists have dropped class Aves in favor of Dinosauria.
Jurrasic Park, here we come! We will just clone up the first T-rex in 68,000,000 years and pack 'em in for the big show!0 -
If T Rex was half as tough as the chicken I had for dinner last night...well, let's just say, I believe it.
Hmmmm...tastes like T Rex...0 -
quote:Originally posted by ripley16
If T Rex was half as tough as the chicken I had for dinner last night...well, let's just say, I believe it.
Hmmmm...tastes like T Rex...
you still got the cat?? [:D]..0 -
What kind of meat is this?
Its Tyrannosaurus Rex sir.
Funny It tastes exactly like chicken[:D]0 -
quote:Originally posted by Cyclonus
What kind of meat is this?
Its Tyrannosaurus Rex sir.
Funny It tastes exactly like chicken[:D]
Thats some funny **** right there!!!!!0 -
quote:Originally posted by CWatson
quote:Originally posted by spurgemastur
Who would have thought that organic molecules could be preserved for tens of millions of years? That's the real news, here.
Exactly. That is what I feel is the interesting part of the article, but I find it hard to believe any organic material could survive 68,000,000 years so how did it get there?
CW
1. The protein they recovered was deep in the bone
2. The bone was deep in the earth
3. The T. rex's resting place became anoxic shortly after the beast died.
Those were three of the factors that helped preserve that protein for that long.0 -
quote:2. The bone was deep in the earth
Who put it there?0 -
Ancient pack ostrich0 -
quote:Originally posted by Zulu7
Maybe they'll find some DNA stuck in there somewhere and be able to clone a T-Rex.[:D]
That would be a good idea for a movie.0 -
quote:Originally posted by He Dog
quote:2. The bone was deep in the earth
Who put it there?
Why do I have the sense that I'm missing a joke?0 -
quote:Originally posted by He Dog
quote:2. The bone was deep in the earth
Who put it there?
If your trying to point your finger at me, I know a semi-good lawyer. Don0 -
quote:Originally posted by He Dog
quote:2. The bone was deep in the earth
Who put it there?
Blame the dog-0 -
quote:Originally posted by FrancF
quote:Originally posted by He Dog
quote:2. The bone was deep in the earth
Who put it there?
Blame the dog-
That would be Dogasaurus I think.0 -
It's the work of Satan. We all know that the earth is only 6,000 years old. 0 -
Chickens do eat meat. Maybe the the protein they found was from whatever chicken ate the meat off of the bone. 0 -
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quote:Originally posted by Zulu7
Maybe they'll find some DNA stuck in there somewhere and be able to clone a T-Rex.[:D]
Would give a whole new meaning to "BIG GAME HUNT" now wouldn't it? Problem being, are you the hunter, or the hunted?0 -
Dinosaurs are cool, man... 0 -
Mega drumsticks--puny wings. 0
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