We all know the story — scientists discover dinosaur DNA and use the genetic material to resurrect extinct species with disastrous results. Unfortunately, in the real world, DNA is too unstable to likely survive the multi-million year ride through the ages to arrive intact in a laboratory. Although soft materials have been found, including protiens, it is unlikely viable DNA will ever be found.
But don’t lose hope! There is another way that we might yet see dinosaurs in our lifetime. Real, true-life, non-CGI dinosaurs. Of a sort.
It’s been dubbed Chickenosaurus.
In “How to Build a Dinosaur,” Jack Horner explains how a new dinosaur can be created through the use of technology that currently exists:
He wants to alter the embryological development of chickens, which are living descendants of dinosaurs. His idea comes from the fertile field of “evo-devo”, which focuses on how evolution affects the way animals develop from fertilised eggs.
Preliminary attempts to tinker with nature have not worked out — a researcher tried to give a chicken a dinosaur-like tail, but the experiment failed.
Although science has the tools necessary to do all the things necessary to create the chickenosaurus, we still don’t know how to wield these tools in order to get us the desired result. In Horner’s case, he knows exactly what that result is: to walk on stage of Oprah, with a chickenosaurus on a leash.
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