A scientist says he can create dinosaurs out of chickens. From the story:
A Canadian palaeontologist believes that he can manipulate chicken embryos in order to create a dinosaur. Hans Larsson, the Canada Research Chair in Macro Evolution at McGill University in Montreal, said he aims to develop dinosaur traits that disappeared millions of years ago in birds. Mr Larsson believes that by flipping certain genetic levers during a chicken embryo’s development, he can reproduce the dinosaur anatomy, he told AFP in an interview. Though still in its infancy, the research could eventually lead to hatching live prehistoric animals, but Mr Larsson said he has no immediate plans to create dinosaurs, for ethical and practical reasons – a dinosaur hatchery is “too large an enterprise.”
“It’s a demonstration of evolution,” said Mr Larsson, who has studied bird evolution for the last 10 years. “If I can demonstrate clearly that the potential for dinosaur anatomical development exists in birds, then it again proves that birds are direct descendants of dinosaurs.”
Yea, well good luck with that. But don’t blame me if the tyrannosaurus decides you’re on the menu for lunch. Here, chick, chick, chick!
September 2nd, 2009 | 3:58 am
Wesley: “Yea, well good luck with that.” LOL
September 2nd, 2009 | 7:03 am
For a guy up to his neck in this sort of thing, he hasn’t been paying much attention to the increasingly-shaky contention that birds are descendants of dinosaurs:
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/06/090609092055.htm
(There’s a lot more out there on this topic if you’re interested.)
September 2nd, 2009 | 2:35 pm
Hasn’t there also been mounting evidence of bird-like lung structures, including lung sacs, in theropods? The thigh position in modern birds is an issue, but that alone doesn’t shake all the other similarities. Assuming the fossilized feather imprints in recent years aren’t all hoaxed, some dinosaurs might as well have been birds with long tails and teeth.
September 2nd, 2009 | 5:00 pm
Those ‘feathers’ were based on some rather shaky evidence mixed with a whole lot of assumptions that, conveniently, dove-tailed with the theory that birds evolved from dinosaurs–now that the assumption that birds evolved from dinos is being weakened each, succeeding, year is sending those assumptions to the waste bin of history.
September 2nd, 2009 | 7:38 pm
There seem to be far too many feathery dinosaur fossils for ALL of them to be hoaxes. (And why the heck would the Chinese invest so much in this theory that they would spend so much time making fake feathered and furred dinosaurs? It would be sillier than the Great Leap Forward…)
Anyway, I wish Mr. Larsson a ton of luck. I think it’s nice that someone has finally found a positive application for genetic engineering.
September 4th, 2009 | 6:10 pm
Wesley, this reminds me – did you ever read Crichton’s book “Next” about the world of genetics and biotechnology? I know you recently highlighted Koontz’s Frankenstein series and thought you might be interested in Crichton’s book as well. I’ll be reading it soon – after I finish the novel I’m currently reading.
http://www.amazon.com/Next-Michael-Crichton/dp/0060872985
September 4th, 2009 | 6:35 pm
Hi Chelsea: I tried but didn’t finish it. I thought he got too caught up in the message. Not that I am a great critic, but there was no protagonist. So, I drifted away from it.
I liked his book on the dangers of nanotech though, I think it was called The Swarm.
September 8th, 2009 | 2:31 pm
I looked it up and I think that one was actually called Prey – I’ll have to check it out as well.
September 13th, 2009 | 3:05 am
[...] Did Scientists Learn Nothing from Michael Crichton? Wednesday, September 2, 2009, 12:58 AM. Wesley J. Smith. A scientist says he can create dinosaurs out of chickens. From the story: A Canadian palaeontologist believes that he can …Continue [...]
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