In the original Jurassic Park, InGen scientists manufacture their dino “products” via a clever combination of digging for fossilized amber, harvesting miraculously viable genetic tissue, and a lot of other complicated laboratory maneuvers. This happens in both the book and the film, and while it’s made to appear feasible, the process is still very much a fiction.
However, according to Dr. Jack Horner — the real-life paleontologist who served as the basis for the character Dr. Alan Grant — another bit of geneticist magic just might make making dinosaurs possible. No, seriously — he’s not kidding. As HNGN reports:
Birds are direct descendants of avian dinosaurs, according to Dino Buzz. Dinosaur birds, like the turkey-sized velociraptor, had feathers, like modern birds. Scientists have even discovered a 3-D fossil of a dino-bird that shows tail feather detail….Over time, snouts turned into beaks, tails disappeared and wings evolved into modern wings of flight, but the DNA that existed previously in the snout-bearing, tail-wearing bird didn’t disappear – it just became inactive, according to Business Insider.
“If the newer genes can be suppressed and the atavistic genes could be expressed,” it continues, “Horner thinks a dinosaur could be possible.” So yeah. Modern science can supposedly concoct a dinosaur via a bird’s suppressed, ancient, still-hanging-around-for-some-reason genes.
No word on whether or not the general public would be willing to fork over thousands to attend the grand opening of “Jurassic Farm.”
(Via HNGN)
