The man Behind Chickensaurus.
John "Jack" R. Horner with T-Rex Skull
DNA extraction From a birds Egg to be replaced with that of a Dinosaur
Retro-Engineering Dinosaurs
March 5, 2009 -- Some of the world's leading paleontologists
are attempting to recreate a dinosaur -- or something a lot like a dinosaur -- by
starting with a chicken embryo and working backward to engineer a
"chickenosaurus" or "dinochicken," project leader Jack Horner told Discovery
News.
Such "reverse evolution" has been successfully performed in mice and flies,
but those studies focused on re-introducing just a few bygone traits. The
dinochicken project instead has the goal of bringing back multiple dinosaur
characteristics, such as a tail, teeth and forearms, by changing the levels of
regulatory proteins that have evolved to suppress these characteristics in
birds.
"Birds are dinosaurs, so technically we're making a dinosaur out of a
dinosaur," said Horner, a professor of paleontology at Montana State University
and curator of paleontology at the Museum of the Rockies.
"The only reason we're using chickens, instead of some other bird, is that
the chicken genome has been mapped, and chickens have already been exhaustively
studied," added Horner.
He and colleague James Gorman, deputy science editor of The New York
Times, have just co-authored a new book, "How to Build a Dinosaur:
Extinction Doesn't Have to Be Forever," which describes the project in detail.
Although the plan seems more like a page out of the fictional "Jurassic
Park," Horner assured it is real and is already underway.
"A number of people in a number of different places are moving forward with
the project slowly and carefully," he said.
One such researcher is Hans Laarson of McGill University in Montreal. Laarson
and his team are analyzing the genes involved in tail development and
researching ways of manipulating chicken embryos in order to "awaken the
dinosaur within."
By bringing back a tail to a chicken, Laarson and his colleagues will promote
growth of the spinal cord. In the future, Horner believes this
work could lead to medical advancements that will benefit humans.
"The growth of the tail is tied to the growth of the spinal cord, and spinal
cord birth defects in humans are a major medical problem," he explained.
"Learning more about what prompts and stops tail growth could give us important
insights about serious human birth defects."
Other medical breakthroughs could also occur, he said, since "genomes made of
genes made of switches" function similarly in all animals, including humans.
There is no danger of the proposed dinochicken escaping and populating the
world with dinosaurs, Horner said, since only the chicken's development, and
not its genome, would have been affected. If the creature did somehow escape
and could mate, the result would just be a regular chicken.
If a chicken embryo does not grow properly in the lab, or if it could not
"survive comfortably," Horner said, "we would never let it hatch."
Kevin Padian, a professor of integrative biology at the University of
California at Berkeley and a curator at the UC Museum of Paleontology, told
Discovery News he supports the project.
"The important thing that Jack and Jim are saying here is that there is a lot
of information stored in our genes that we don't use -- genes that determine
features that evolution has suppressed, for various reasons," Padian said.
"We now have the tools to 'reverse-engineer' some of those constraints and
produce traits that look a bit more like those ancient features," he added.
"This tells us how genetics, development and evolution are related, so it's
tremendously important."
When and if the dinochicken is created, Horner looks forward to bringing it
out on a leash during lectures.
"We're always looking for novel ways to get the general public interested in
science," he said, "and you have to admit, it would be better than a slide show
for demonstrating evolution."
are attempting to recreate a dinosaur -- or something a lot like a dinosaur -- by
starting with a chicken embryo and working backward to engineer a
"chickenosaurus" or "dinochicken," project leader Jack Horner told Discovery
News.
Such "reverse evolution" has been successfully performed in mice and flies,
but those studies focused on re-introducing just a few bygone traits. The
dinochicken project instead has the goal of bringing back multiple dinosaur
characteristics, such as a tail, teeth and forearms, by changing the levels of
regulatory proteins that have evolved to suppress these characteristics in
birds.
"Birds are dinosaurs, so technically we're making a dinosaur out of a
dinosaur," said Horner, a professor of paleontology at Montana State University
and curator of paleontology at the Museum of the Rockies.
"The only reason we're using chickens, instead of some other bird, is that
the chicken genome has been mapped, and chickens have already been exhaustively
studied," added Horner.
He and colleague James Gorman, deputy science editor of The New York
Times, have just co-authored a new book, "How to Build a Dinosaur:
Extinction Doesn't Have to Be Forever," which describes the project in detail.
Although the plan seems more like a page out of the fictional "Jurassic
Park," Horner assured it is real and is already underway.
"A number of people in a number of different places are moving forward with
the project slowly and carefully," he said.
One such researcher is Hans Laarson of McGill University in Montreal. Laarson
and his team are analyzing the genes involved in tail development and
researching ways of manipulating chicken embryos in order to "awaken the
dinosaur within."
By bringing back a tail to a chicken, Laarson and his colleagues will promote
growth of the spinal cord. In the future, Horner believes this
work could lead to medical advancements that will benefit humans.
"The growth of the tail is tied to the growth of the spinal cord, and spinal
cord birth defects in humans are a major medical problem," he explained.
"Learning more about what prompts and stops tail growth could give us important
insights about serious human birth defects."
Other medical breakthroughs could also occur, he said, since "genomes made of
genes made of switches" function similarly in all animals, including humans.
There is no danger of the proposed dinochicken escaping and populating the
world with dinosaurs, Horner said, since only the chicken's development, and
not its genome, would have been affected. If the creature did somehow escape
and could mate, the result would just be a regular chicken.
If a chicken embryo does not grow properly in the lab, or if it could not
"survive comfortably," Horner said, "we would never let it hatch."
Kevin Padian, a professor of integrative biology at the University of
California at Berkeley and a curator at the UC Museum of Paleontology, told
Discovery News he supports the project.
"The important thing that Jack and Jim are saying here is that there is a lot
of information stored in our genes that we don't use -- genes that determine
features that evolution has suppressed, for various reasons," Padian said.
"We now have the tools to 'reverse-engineer' some of those constraints and
produce traits that look a bit more like those ancient features," he added.
"This tells us how genetics, development and evolution are related, so it's
tremendously important."
When and if the dinochicken is created, Horner looks forward to bringing it
out on a leash during lectures.
"We're always looking for novel ways to get the general public interested in
science," he said, "and you have to admit, it would be better than a slide show
for demonstrating evolution."
