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DNA at last



I copied this out of the San Jose Mercury News this morning.

US TEAM EXTRACTS FRAGMENTS OF DNA FROM DINOSAUR BONES
(reuters)LONDON-
American scientists have extracted genetic material from the bones of a 65
million-year-old dinosaur--but they won't be recreating the mighty beasts as
happened in the film "Jurassic Park".
   Paleontologist Jack Horner, and advisor on Steven Spielburg's hit film
about dinosaurs, managed to isolate fragments of DNA from the femur of a
Tyrannosaurus Rex, the Sunday Times reported.(me: what Sunday times?  The
London Sunday Times?)
   Detailing the findings of the Montana University lecturer, it said
Horner's team is to publish evidence that the fragments resemble those of
modern-day birds.
   This would mean that dinosaurs did not die out 65 million years ago as
generally assumed.  Some may have survived and evolved into birds.(me:
continued to evolve into birds)
   Horner has been racing against another US team, led by Professor Scott
Woodward of Utah's Brigham Young University, to be first with the dinosaur
DNA details.
   Woodward told the Sunday Times: "I think we will find there were almost as
many different kinds of dinosaurs on Earth as there are animals today and
that some were probably closely related to birds."
   But neither Horner or Woodward forecast that Jurassic Park would come
true.   DNA fragments can be amplified and copied, but they are only a tiny
part of the total genetic make-up needed to re-create dinosaurs.

(me: comments?)
Betty Cunningham(Flyinggoat@aol.com)