
Feathered dinosaur tail found in amber (2016) - zuhayeer
https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-38224564
======
holoduke
Would it theoretically be possible to extract DNA from these samples or are is
that out of the question ever in any situation?

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echelon
Impossible. DNA has an estimated half life of only 521 years [1]. It's a
fairly reactive molecule due to the number of reactions it has to undergo to
fulfill its purpose.

I believe the T-Rex soft tissue [2,3] that has been discovered contained short
polypeptide sequences. You can infer the codons from this information, but
that elides promotor, signaling, non-coding, etc regions that will be of
massive importance. Not to mention you won't get much data in the first place.

Hundreds of years from now, any dinosaurs we recreate will be the result of
creative genetic engineering and imagination.

[1] [https://www.nature.com/news/dna-has-a-521-year-half-
life-1.1...](https://www.nature.com/news/dna-has-a-521-year-half-life-1.11555)

[2] [https://m.phys.org/news/2019-11-mechanisms-soft-tissue-
prote...](https://m.phys.org/news/2019-11-mechanisms-soft-tissue-protein-
tyrannosaurus.html)

[3] [https://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/dinosaur-
shock...](https://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/dinosaur-
shocker-115306469/)

~~~
tigerlily
> Hundreds of years from now, any dinosaurs we recreate will be the result of
> creative genetic engineering and imagination.

Not to mention machine learning. I wonder if we get a bunch of samples from
different individuals, could an AI simply just piece it all together?

~~~
rvense
If the information is gone, it is gone.

I'm sure you could devise a "machine learning algorithm" that'll shove some
random numbers in there, though.

~~~
mc32
It'd be like using machine learning to recreate unrecorded speeches of Marcus
Aurelius or Alexander the Great word-for-word.

~~~
rvense
And in this climate I'm sure you could get some venture capital for that...

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apacheCamel
Feathers on a dinosaur make them a lot less scary IMO, even the one in the
artist impression is kind of cute, but I know (if I was around) seeing a very
toothy bird-like creature live and in person might make me change my mind.

~~~
thdrdt
I also had this with the Neanderthals paintings of Tom Bjørklund. Most of the
time Neanderthals are rendered as ape like beings, but he draws them as
humans. This made me think completely different about Neanderthals.

A list of his work: [https://steemit.com/art/@cultureshock/these-neanderthal-
char...](https://steemit.com/art/@cultureshock/these-neanderthal-character-
studies-by-tom-bjoerklund-look-awesome)

His website: [https://www.tombjorklund.fi/](https://www.tombjorklund.fi/)

Instagram:
[https://www.instagram.com/tombjorklundart/](https://www.instagram.com/tombjorklundart/)

~~~
swamp40
You (everyone) should study their skeletons. No different from ours, unless
you are a forensic anthropologist. Especially considering the wide variety of
human body shapes. Showing them as ape-like is a type of racism. Technically
speciesism I suppose.

~~~
shrewduser
what? they seem noticeably different to me.

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glenvdb
In a time when dinosaurs and birds both co-existed how do they tell the
difference between dinosaur feathers and bird feathers? What are the features
of feathers between these species that differentiate them?

~~~
GolDDranks
Essentially (or, "cladistically"), birds _are_ dinosaurs, and even if you
restrict yourself to "non-modern dinosaurs", where do you draw the line?

~~~
tempguy9999
Well maybe. There were a class of very birdlike creatures called
enantiornithines which I suspect are a completely different line and quite
possibly not dinosaurs, however I've dug around before and am unable to find
any precise statement of their genetic relationship to extant birds (and
therefore their relationship to true dinosaurs).

Enantiornithines had the wing joint inverted:
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enantiornithes](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enantiornithes)

"Enantiornitheans are thought to have left no living descendants ... the
articulation of the shoulder bones – which has a concave-convex socket joint
that is the reverse of that of modern birds"

If anyone can elucidate, please do.

At the bottom of the article is a link to another article on these creatures
[https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-
environment-36651471](https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-36651471)
"Ancient birds' wings preserved in amber"

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labster
(2016)

Still cool.

