T-Rex linked to chicken

Tiny bits of protein extracted from a 68-million-year-old dinosaur bone have given scientists the first genetic proof that the mighty Tyrannosaurus rex is a distant cousin to the modern chicken.

"It's the first molecular evidence of this link between birds and dinosaurs," said John Asara, a Harvard Medical School researcher, whose results were published in Friday's edition of the journal Science.

Scientists have long suspected that birds evolved from dinosaurs based on a study of dinosaur bones, but until recently, no soft tissue had survived to confirm the link.

That all changed in 2005 when Mary Higby Schweitzer of North Carolina State University reported finding soft tissue, including blood vessels and cells, in a T. rex bone dug out of sandstone from the fossil-rich Hell Creek Formation in Montana.

Schweitzer, in another study appearing in this week's issue of Science, found that extracts of T. rex bone reacted with antibodies to chicken collagen, further suggesting the presence of birdlike protein in dinosaur bones.

For his study, Asara used a highly sensitive technology called mass spectrometry to determine the chemical makeup of bone fragments provided by Schweitzer and her team.

He first had to purify the bone extract, which came in the form of a gritty brown powder that remained after minerals were extracted. Asara then broke it down into peptide fragments, little bits of proteins, isolated into the amino acid sequences that make them up.

"It was very tough to get anything," he said in a telephone interview. He wound up with seven separate strands of amino acid, five of which were a particular class of collagen, a fibrous protein found in bone.

Next, Asara had to interpret the sequences. He compared his results to collagen data from living animals. Most matched collagen from chickens, while others matched a newt and frog.

"Based on all of the genomic information we have available today, it appears these sequences are closer to birds or chickens than anything else," Asara said.

Ultimately, scientists had hoped to find genetic material that was unique to the T. rex. That was not possible with the tiny T. rex sample.

"We never found unique T. rex tags," he said.

In a similar study of mastodon bones supplied by Schweitzer, Asara had more luck.

He compared the samples to a database of existing amino acid sequences and against a theoretical set of mastodon sequences and found a total of 78 peptides, including four unique sequences.

Still, Asara said the T. rex protein sequence was useful in providing clues about the evolution of the species.

The researchers said the results may change the way that people think about fossil preservation.

"The fact that we are getting proteins is very exciting," said paleontologist Jack Horner, who dug up the T. rex in 2003 and is co-author of the paper with Schweitzer.

Horner said paleontologists will need to dig deeper for specimens that have not been corrupted by ground water and bacteria.

"I think we are going to find that many specimens are like it. It will be a matter of paleontologists getting into sites that are not necessarily easy," he told reporters in a telephone briefing.

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Lets take a page from your book, shall we?

YZF you knew what was coming so why the fuck are you posting in here, I'm getting sick of all the preaching. If I wanted a sermon I would be in church, but I don't so I'm on the internetz looking at pr0n so go back to you religion section and stay there.

In other words....

BACK IN YOUR HOLE

As for T.Rex....

I wonder if it tasted like chicken?

Jesus on a t rex...

blah

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"Obama is going to make Hitler look like a boyscout."

ROFL!!!

Thats fucking great. YZF your going straight to hell just for being in this thread I suggest you go back to your hole, its for your own good buddy.

Now why in the fuck would I kiss your brainwashed ass.

What are you still telling us we are all going to hell, last time I checked this wasn't your religion section so stop preaching all your bullshit. I've been able to resist the mindless biblical brainwashing till now and its not gonna happen now so stop trying.

O rly? And it seems that is your role in life to be a stupid fucking hick yankee preaching religion as something to make you feel like your life is heading the right way after it was brought to your attention that cousin lovin is a bad thing. If you want to preach this shit none stop then go become a preacher.

Righto , I'll get right on that buddy. I'm not the one who came into this thread trying to convince the forum to become a bunch of christian nutjobs. And I'm not in the religion forum trying to convince everybody that evolution is the way shit went down. It's really not that hard to do you should give it a shot sometime.

Actually YZF doesn't preach or even tell the 'Good News'.

He just spits out garbage on how everyone is a fool and is going to hell....He serves himself and not Him.

Blasphemy ?!?!?!?

I did a google search for "Jesus TRex" and it was a posting of a sunday school class where that picture came from.

So now they are teaching blasphemy in sunday school to little kids????

Are you also saying that Jesus couldn't ride a TRex if he wanted to????

Here is another picture from that page!



Man you don't even believe the voices in your head anymore!

You seem mad. It's those damn Flames, isn't it? Why do we always get stuck with bloody McGeough?

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Let's see how long this lasts.

TRex chillin with Noah!

alright, I generally read more than i post here, and I usually just chuckle at you're high-handed, and hypocritical preaching and insulting, YZF, but now your blunt ignorance has me pissed. And you know why? 'Cause you fuckin made fun of Canada, that's why.
fuck that. Canadians receive exactly 1 entire year of schooling more than Americans, and have a higher literacy rate than, what is it down there now, 40%? Pitiful. You go around insulting and dispensing judgment like you were Jesus himself(and at that, Jesus-according to the bible, did no such thing in the manner that you do.) Where's the brotherly love, or acceptance of people that the majority of Christianity preaches(I don't count mormons, lol) My country isn't run by someone who has a lower IQ than the average person, and I don't subscribe to something that I choose to use to make my peers feel inferior, so you know what? You can kiss my fuckin ass, brown-eye and all. Canada ftw.