That Chicken you're eating? It's ancestor was T-Rex!

[Normy]

From today's Sun-Sentinel:

"In the first analysis of proteins extracted from dinosaur bones, scientists say they have established more firmly that the closest living relatives of the mighty predator Tyrannosaurus rex are modern birds.

The research, being published today in the journal Science, yielded the first molecular data confirming the widely held hypothesis of a close dinosaur-bird ancestry, the American scientific team reported. The link was previously suggested by anatomical similarities.

In fact, the scientists said, T. rex shared more of its genetic makeup with ostriches and chickens than with living reptiles, like alligators. On this basis, the research team has redrawn the family tree of major vertebrate groups, assigning the dinosaur a new place in evolutionary relationships.

Similar molecular tests on tissues from the extinct mastodon confirmed its close genetic link to the elephant, as had been suspected from skeletal affinities.

"Our results at the genetic level basically agree with what has been seen in skeletal data," John M. Asara of Harvard said. "There is more than a 90 percent probability that the grouping of T. rex with living birds is real."

Asara and Lewis C. Cantley, both of Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center and Harvard Medical School, processed the proteins from tissue found deep in bones of a 68 million-year-old T. rex excavated in 2003 by John R. Horner of Montana State University. Mary H. Schweitzer of North Carolina State University discovered the preserved soft tissues.

For the molecular study, Asara and Chris L. Organ, a researcher in evolutionary biology at Harvard, compared the dinosaur protein with similar protein from several dozen species of modern birds, reptiles and other animals.

Organ was the lead author of the journal report, which concluded that the molecular tests confirmed the prediction that extinct dinosaurs "would show a higher degree of similarity with birds than with other extant vertebrates." The researchers said they planned to extend their investigations to include comparisons of T. rex protein with more species of birds, reptiles and other dinosaurs.

Dinosaur paleontologists were not surprised. An accumulation of fossil evidence in recent years had given them increasing confidence in their contention that birds descended from certain dinosaurs — or as they sometimes put it, birds are living dinosaurs.

The new research, Organ's team wrote, suggests "that molecular data from long-extinct organisms may have the potential for resolving relationships at critical areas of the vertebrate evolutionary tree that have, so far, been intractable."

N!

[m21sniper]

Originally Posted by Normy

In fact, the scientists said, T. rex shared more of its genetic makeup with ostriches and chickens than with living reptiles, like alligators. On this basis, the research team has redrawn the family tree of major vertebrate groups, assigning the dinosaur a new place in evolutionary relationships.

Ah, i love it when a new find tosses the old theories out on their ass.

[sjf911]

Originally Posted by m21sniper

Ah, i love it when a new find tosses the old theories out on their ass.

Now what theory are we talking about?

Of all the theropod groups, the coelurosaurs were by far the most diverse. Some coelurosaur clades that flourished during the Cretaceous are: tyrannosaurs, including the famous Tyrannosaurus rex, the dromaeosaurs, including Velociraptor and Deinonychus, which are remarkably similar in form to the oldest known bird, Archaeopteryx (Ostrom 1969, Paul 1988, Dingus & Rowe 1998), as well as the dromaeosaur-like Troodontidae, the omnivorous oviraptorosaurs, the omnivorous ornithomimids ("ostrich dinosaurs") and Therizinosauridae (giant-clawed herbivores) and the birds (the only dinosaur lineage to survive the end Cretaceous mass-extinction). While the roots of these various groups must have been in the Late or possibly even the Middle Jurassic, they only became abundant during the early Cretaceous. A few paleontologists, such as Gregory S. Paul, have suggested (Paul 1988, 2002) that some or all of these advanced theropods were actually descended from flying dinosaurs or proto-birds like Archaeopteryx that lost the ability to fly and returned to a terrestrial habitat. While this hypothesis can explain why coelurosaurs are so rare during the Jurassic, more fossil evidence is needed before the exact relationships of advanced theropods can be accurately tested.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theropod

[m21sniper]

Perhaps you should re-read my highlighted quote from the article. The one about "redrawing the family trees of major vertibrate groups and assigning the dinosaur a new place in evolutionary relationships."

It was someone else's previous work that just got totally "redrawn" by this find.

[kang]

Originally Posted by m21sniper

Ah, i love it when a new find tosses the old theories out on their ass.

I love it too. It means we're learning new things. Imagine the opposite: new finds never toss out old theories. That would mean we already know everything or we’re not learning new things. Since we know we don’t know everything, this means we are learning new things. Until we know everything (or stop learning new things), there will always be instances where new finds toss out old theories.

[tabs]

No T Rex Of Mine Is Going To Wear Feathers!!!!

[dewolf]

Originally Posted by m21sniper

Ah, i love it when a new find tosses the old theories out on their ass.

Aren't theories by their very nature subject to change as new discoveries are made.

[Moses]

Good science has no agenda. We just modify and fine tune our understanding of the universe. Great stuff.

[Rearden]

Originally Posted by dewolf

Aren't theories by their very nature subject to change as new discoveries are made.

He's being smug because the bible was 100% accurate right out of the box and never had to be refined.

[K. Roman]

I love how the Bible never changes!
It's the love of my life, it's The Bible!

Doctor, don't use science on me, use the Bible!

[dafischer]

Originally Posted by tabs

No T Rex Of Mine Is Going To Wear Feathers!!!!

Bang A Gong!

[911pcars]

Just think if we could reverse evolution and grow chickens the size of T-rex. World hunger might be a thing of the past. Think of the eggs these guys could lay. However, their feed bill would be enormous. Maybe we feed them cattle.

It would also be more commonplace for chicken farmers to have bragging contests at the local pub; "My uh..... rooster is bigger than yours."

Sherwood

[livi]

In the end, we are all relatives.

[kstar]

Originally Posted by livi

In the end, we are all relatives.

Even with this immobile fellow.

[red-beard]

So seriously, they'd have tasted like chicken...

[frogger]

Mmmmm, chicken.

[red-beard]

You know, maybe we should bring them back. Think about it, we could feed the whole poor population of the world....








to them....

[sjf911]

Originally Posted by 911pcars

Just think if we could reverse evolution and grow chickens the size of T-rex. World hunger might be a thing of the past. Think of the eggs these guys could lay. However, their feed bill would be enormous. Maybe we feed them cattle.

It would also be more commonplace for chicken farmers to have bragging contests at the local pub; "My uh..... rooster is bigger than yours."

Sherwood

But it is the hen that rules!

http://www.genomenewsnetwork.org/articles/06_00/Meaningless_sex.shtml

[911pcars]

Originally Posted by sjf911

But it is the hen that rules!

http://www.genomenewsnetwork.org/articles/06_00/Meaningless_sex.shtml

Hmmm. Let's rethink this. I'm not sure I'd want T-Rex-sized roosters roaming around looking for something to inseminate. The barnyard would be a hazardous location for farmer John.

Sherwood

[m21sniper]

Originally Posted by dewolf

Aren't theories by their very nature subject to change as new discoveries are made.

It seems to depend on the theory in question.