The modern descendant of the dinosaur. Is it possible to return dinosaurs to this world? Lizards and turtles

What is the purpose of the existence of such reptiles? Are they supposed to testify to how monstrous the world of dinosaurs was? Or to talk about the difficulties of creating BEAUTIFUL, which, contrary to intentions, becomes HORRIBLE? I think ... It is unlikely that so much ingenuity would have been spent on the colorful outfit of monsters, if the actions of Nature were not determined by AESTHETIC SEARCH ...

modern reptiles

ancient reptiles

The largest land animals belonging to the dinosaurs flourished during the Mesozoic era, when they dominated the land, sea and air. After 160 million years, at the end of the Cretaceous period, most of these died out. Modern reptiles are just scattered remnants of the world of monsters: domesticated, used for entertainment, remaining scary and incomprehensible ...

Lizards and turtles

The most numerous groups from modern. They live among people (and maybe people among them are multimillion-year-olds). Turtles are kept at home in boxes and fed with cabbage leaves. At the same time, they do not know or forget about the monstrous and terrifying lizards that live on Earth today. But some of them are capable of killing, while others are capable of dismemberment or simply gnawing off their hands. One sight of a hard shell or a thin tail should signal a danger that exceeds the wildest expectations. But no…

monitor lizards, iguanas

They lead mainly an arboreal lifestyle. They are small in size, have bizarre scales, very brightly colored. People tear them out of their natural environment and turn them into objects for viewing and photographing. This is a desecration of nature - they are the descendants of ancient dinosaurs!!! But, no, people think only about themselves, what does it matter to them that Nature wanted to leave them the memory of the past of the planet ...

Large animals with a lizard-like body. There are only 23 species of them, which include real crocodiles, as well as alligators, caimans and gharials. Crocodiles are dangerous to humans - they attack people. Crocodile meat is eaten by the population of many tropical countries. The skin of crocodiles, especially alligators, is used for the manufacture of various haberdashery products (briefcases, suitcases, etc.). Predatory extermination of crocodiles led to a sharp reduction in their numbers and the adoption of protective measures. In a number of countries (for example, in Thailand) there are special farms for breeding crocodiles.

Habitat of the green mamba

South Africa. Length - up to 150 cm. Mamba is a very beautiful snake. Its scales shimmer with emerald green, with hints of blue and yellow. It can attack for no apparent reason and without warning. Its poison acts so quickly that doctors do not even have time to introduce an antidote on the spot, let alone bring it to the nearest hospital. Green mambas love to jump from branches by the collar, from where it is very difficult to get it, and while you are fiddling, the mamba will have time to deliver a deadly bite.

Komodo monitor lizard
OR GIANT INDONESIAN LIMIT

It lives on the Indonesian woodlands, beaches and plateaus, posing a threat to almost everything living, as a prehistoric predator of the highest order. Lizards, whose body length is 3 meters and weighs more than 136 kilograms, are the largest on Earth, forming a microcosm of the prehistoric world in which reptiles ruled.

Komodo dragons

They feed on such large prey as the Asian buffalo. There were cases when they attacked, dismembered and absorbed people. Attacking such large prey, they knock it down, and then brutally attack, tearing off large pieces of flesh. Toxic saliva and bacteria weaken the prey, which does not die immediately.

Scientists have suggested that Komodo dragons evolved in such a way as to feed on the now extinct pygmy elephants that previously lived in the same area as them. I can’t help but express my doubts… If monitor lizards survived pygmy elephants, then the purpose of the existence of such reptiles was higher. They were supposed to testify how monstrous the world of dinosaurs is? Or talk about the complexities of creating something that, contrary to intention, becomes HORRIBLE? I think...

It is hardly worth spending so much ingenuity
on the colorful outfit of monsters, if the actions of Nature
does not define AESTHETIC SEARCH…

As for organic material, can dinosaur DNA be extracted from it? Not really. Paleontologists are constantly arguing about the suitability of organics, but DNA has never been extracted (and apparently never will be able to).

Take, for example, a Tyrannosaurus rex (which is a rex). In 2005, scientists used a weak acid to extract weak and pliable tissues from the remains, including bone cells, red blood cells and blood vessels. However, subsequent studies showed that the find was an ordinary accident. got seriously excited. Additional analysis using radiocarbon and scanning electron microscopy showed that the material for the study was not dinosaur tissue, but bacterial biofilms - colonies of bacteria linked by polysaccharides, proteins and DNA. These two things look very similar, but have more in common with plaque than with dinosaur cells.

In any case, these findings were very interesting. Perhaps the most interesting thing we have not yet found. Scientists improved their techniques and, when they got close to the nest of Lufengosaurs, they pulled themselves together. Captivating? Absolutely. organic? Yes. DNA? No.

But what if it's possible?

there is hope

Over the past decade, advances in stem cells, ancient DNA resuscitation, and genome reconstruction have brought the notion of “extinction in reverse” closer to reality. However, how close and what this may mean for the most ancient animals is still unclear.

Using frozen cells, scientists successfully cloned a Pyrenean ibex known as bucardo in 2003, but it died a minute later. For years, Australian researchers have been trying to bring back to life a southern species of mouth-feeding frogs, the last of which died decades ago, but their quest has so far been unsuccessful.

So, stumbling and cursing at every step, scientists give us hope for more ambitious resuscitations: mammoths, passenger pigeons and Yukon horses, which became extinct 70 thousand years ago. This age may confuse you at first, but just imagine: this is one tenth of a percent from the time when the last dinosaur died.

Even if dinosaur DNA is as old as yesterday's yogurt, numerous ethical and practical considerations will leave only the most insane scientists among the supporters of the dinosaur resurrection idea. How are we going to regulate these processes in general? Who will be doing this? How will dinosaur resurrection affect the Endangered Species Act? What, besides pain and suffering, will failed attempts bring? Suddenly we resuscitate deadly diseases? What if invasive species grow on steroids?

There is certainly growth potential. Like a representation of the wolves in Yellowstone, a "rollback" of recently extinct species could restore balance to disturbed ecosystems. Some believe that humanity is indebted to the animals it has destroyed.

The problem of DNA, so far, is a purely academic issue. It is clear that resurrecting some frozen mammoth from a frozen cage may not arouse much suspicion, but what to do with dinosaurs? The discovery of a Lufengosaurus nest may have brought us closest to Jurassic Park.

Alternatively, you can try to cross an extinct animal with a currently existing one. In 1945, some German breeders claimed that they were able to reanimate the aurochs, the long-extinct ancestor of modern cattle, but scientists still do not believe in this event.

Scientists have found in Tanzania the remains of a probable ancestor of dinosaurs, which was more like a crocodile than the first "real" dinosaurs, eoraptors and other "terror lizards", according to an article published in the journal Nature.

So the artist imagined the ancestor of all dinosaurs, Teleocrater rhadinus, eating the remains of a beast lizard. Natural History Museum, London/Mark Witton

"This discovery shows that the first dinosaurs had much in common with the first crocodiles, and that the "bird" features of the anatomy did not appear immediately in them, as we previously thought. Paleontologists do not like the word "lost link in evolution", but in this case it is valid - Teleocrater links dinosaurs and their common ancestor to crocodiles," said Ken Angelchuk of the Field Museum of Natural History in Chicago (USA).

The chicken, dinosaur and egg problem

The first dinosaurs, as paleontologists now believe, appeared at the end of the Triassic period - about 240 million years ago, after the disappearance of all large animal lizards that dominated the Earth in the Permian period. The main competitors of dinosaurs for the "crown" of the most successful animals on Earth were crocodiles, which at that time reached gigantic sizes and lived not only in water bodies, but also on land.

Both crocodiles and dinosaurs are close relatives whose ancestors split, scientists believe, in the mid-Triassic period. How and when this happened, paleontologists do not yet know, since fossils from this time are quite rare.

On the other hand, most scientists believed that they "dispersed" quite quickly, since the oldest dinosaurs are not like crocodiles - they had long flexible necks, could walk on two legs and their limbs were adapted for fast running.

Picture: Museo Argentino de Ciencias Naturales "Bernardino Rivadavia"/Gabriel Lio

Angelchuk and his colleagues found that the first dinosaur ancestors were actually more like crocodiles than their immediate descendants by studying mid-Triassic rocks that formed in southern Tanzania near the Ruhuhu River.

Here, paleontologists have discovered the remains of a three-meter creature that does not look like either eoraptors (the first dinosaurs that lived in Argentina 230 million years ago), or nyasasaurs found by the authors of the article in Tanzania in 2012, or other dinosaurs and their ancient relatives. In general, we can say that it was not like any ancient reptile or their modern descendants.

dinosaurbirdcrocodile

This animal, according to Angelchuk, was more like a monitor lizard or "thin" crocodile with unusually long legs and neck than a dinosaur - it moved on four legs and had primitive joints that did not allow it to run fast, and also had a number of other features. ancient and modern reptiles.

However, the creature was a dinosaur, as its general anatomy was closer to that of a "dread lizard". For example, their neck ribs were longer than other bones of a similar type, and they also had a unique shape not characteristic of crocodiles. In addition, this mysterious creature had the jaws of a dinosaur and front paws unusual for crocodiles.

Scientists have named this bizarre creature Teleocrater rhadinus, which means "thin animal with closed pelvic cavities", which speaks of the inability of these creatures to run as fast as dinosaurs.

As is often the case in paleontology, Teleocrater rhadinus was actually discovered much earlier, in the mid-1950s, when British paleontologist Alan Charig was studying fossils found by his team in Tanzania in the 1930s. He did not attach importance to these bizarre remains and did not see them as the ancestor of all dinosaurs, since the remains he found were incomplete.

Angelchuk and his colleagues corrected Charig's mistake by naming their find by the name their British predecessor had come up with for it. According to scientists, the discovery of Teleocrater rhadinus completely turns the history of the evolution of birds, dinosaurs and crocodiles and closes the most important gap in the history of their origin, which scientists have been arguing about for several decades.

Remember the movie "Jurassic Park" and the dinosaurs that were in this picture?
So, American paleontologist Jack Horner has been working on this film and now he wants to create a real living dinosaur.
How do you like this idea?

According to the scientist, there is nothing particularly difficult in this, and you don’t even have to look for a prehistoric mosquito that fell into the tar after barely drinking dinosaur blood. Quite modern creatures will help to bring out an ancient reptile - those that, according to one of the theories, descended from dinosaurs. It's about birds.
"We will take a chicken embryo as a starting point and use genetic engineering methods to make it go back to the past until we "pull out" the dinosaur that lurks inside it. Initially, it will not be a dinosaur, but a creature that has many of its features," the scientist said. . The subsequent "single-sawing" of this creature will take, according to Horner, not so much time - five, seven years.
In the first stages, the chicken embryo develops the features of a dinosaur: teeth, paws with three fingers

It is worth noting that the idea of ​​creating a "kurosaurus" (or "dinocura" - whatever you like) is not so new in itself. The first high-profile statements in the press in this regard were made a few years ago. For example, Horner's colleague from Canada, Hans Larsson, announced back in 2009 that he was working on a similar project, while specifying that it was the American paleontologist who inspired him to accomplish it. But Horner himself is not sitting still. "When I was little, I dreamed of two things. The first was to become a paleontologist. The second was to have my own dinosaur," the scientist previously admitted. Actually, he became a paleontologist, and as he learned more and more about dinosaurs, he became more and more enthusiastic about these prehistoric animals, and the desire to fulfill his second childhood dream grew. And according to Horner himself, there was nothing left before its implementation.

"Kurozavr" with fangs is almost a reality
The process of creating a "kurosaurus" in the presentation of Horner does not look so complicated. But there are nuances: for example, it is impossible to grow a dinosaur from an ancient drop of blood, as in the same Jurassic Park. "If you take a piece of amber that has a mosquito inside, and extract something from the mosquito, and then clone it, and so many times, you get a whole room of mosquitoes. And a whole bunch of trees," Horner joked at the TED Science Foundation conference in last year, "So if you want dinosaur DNA, look for dinosaurs." You can find it, according to the researcher, in the descendants of dinosaurs - birds. And among them, the chicken was chosen as the most studied species. "We know her genome by heart." “It will not be just genetic modification. We intend to wake up atavistic genes in the DNA of birds and force them to reappear,” the paleontologist explained. “First, we need to identify specific genes in the chicken genome and change the level of certain regulatory proteins. dinosaur features develop: teeth, paws with three fingers.
Get something like this

By the way, the gene responsible for the presence or absence of teeth has already been found, so at the moment, scientists can theoretically create a chicken with fangs. But not a monster - but a creature of quite the usual chicken size. But even in a few years, when scientists get to the real dinosaur, the result of their work will not be dangerous. As the scientist stated in an interview with Live Science, he wants to breed a small herbivorous dinosaur. "I'll make sure my new pet doesn't eat my other pets or myself."