Ancient OT: Jurassic park in real life....99 million year old bird

Submitted by UMProud on

The movie Jurassic park premises the cloning of dinosaurs through DNA obtained from blood samples of preserved specimens trapped in amber (mosquito blood).  in a case of real life exceeding Hollywood, a baby bird was found completely encased in amber.  The estimate of the bird age is about 99 million years old and it's state of preservation is stunning.

For reference the T-Rex was on point about 60-85 million years ago...which puts this bird about 15 million years OLDER T-Rex.

 

 

"The remains of a baby bird from the time of the dinosaurs have been discovered in a specimen of 99-million-year-old amber, according to scientists writing in the journal Gondwana Research.

The hatchling belonged to a major group of birds known as enantiornithes, which went extinct along with dinosaurs at the end of the Cretaceous period, about 65 million years ago. Funded in part by the National Geographic Society's Expeditions Council, this discovery is providing critical new information about these ancient, toothed birds and how they differed from modern birds.

This is also the most complete fossil yet to be discovered in Burmese amber. Mined in the Hukawng Valley in northern Myanmar, Burmese amber deposits contain possibly the largest variety of animal and plant life from the Cretaceous period, which lasted from 145.5 to 65.5 million years ago."

Credit:  National Geographic, Kristen Romey, 6/7/2017

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/2017/06/baby-bird-dinosaur-burmese-amber-fossil/

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Eye of the Tiger

June 10th, 2017 at 8:43 PM ^

I bet there will be some crazy discoveries. Recent findings from China have already greatly broadened our understanding of dinosaurs and the dinosaur age. Finally we may start to get some answers to remaining mysteries: Were dinosaurs warm blooded, as is now theorized? Why did most dinosaur species die out, while crocodilians survived and theropods evolved into birds? How widespread were feathers and fur? Did raptors hunt in packs? ...and more.

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jblaze

June 10th, 2017 at 10:18 PM ^

This is politics! I believe the world was created well before 99 million years ago and your "scientists" are libertards that hate Jesus! Please delete!

I'm absolutely joking, because creationists are morons, but you get my point.

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UMProud

June 10th, 2017 at 10:31 PM ^

To be accurate creationism is different than young earth theory proponents...who I think you're alluding to. Creationists simply subscribe to the view of a divine crestor being the source of all. Many creationists accept the theory of evolution as a method of brimging about life. Other creationists view the days in Genesis as eras where the life was created in stages at different times.

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bo_lives

June 10th, 2017 at 10:23 PM ^

I do feel obligated to point out that the half life of DNA in bone (the tissue most resistant to degradation) is 521 years, and scientists estimate that after ~1 million years of decay, it becomes impossible to reconstruct any gene sequences from a dead organism. The find is cool nonetheless.

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UMChick77

June 11th, 2017 at 8:21 AM ^

Actually the maximum viability and usage of DNA is 200,000 years. After that point it's too degraded to be useful in any sort of cloning or de-extinction project. Now something more recent, like the wooly mammoth or passenger pigeon is a very real possibility.

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