MoAW Weekly Spotlight - Chasmosaurus belli - Could Scientists Bring Dinosaurs Back To Life?

February 19, 2021

Spotlight:

Chasmosaurus belli

Could Scientists Bring Dinosaurs

Back To Life?

Is Jurassic Park Possible?

Maybe...But Should They?

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I abide in a goodly Museum,

Frequented by sages profound:

'Tis a kind of strange mausoleum,

Where the beasts that have vanished abound.

There's a bird of the ages Triassic,

With his antediluvian beak,

And many a reptile Jurassic,

And many a monster antique.

May Kendall, English Poet, 1861 to 1943, from Ballad of the Ichthyosaurus, Dreams to Sell (1887).

MESOZOICA:

The Age of Dinosaurs

Drawn from the world’s foremost fossil collections, the unprecedented treasury of fossil casts known as MESOZOICA: The Age of Dinosaurs brings together into one exhibition some of the most exciting finds in the history of paleontology from over a century of worldwide excavations.

Designed as a timeline, you will see famous specimens from the Triassic, Jurassic, and Cretaceous Periods in geological, chronological order.

Displaying casts of rare fossils from the Americas, Europe, Asia, Africa, and Australia, this prestigious collection includes skeletons, skulls, claws, and eggs gathered from such revered museums as the Smithsonian Institution, the American Museum of Natural History, The Royal Ontario Museum, and the Carnegie Museum, as well as many others.

Order Ornithischia,

Suborder Ceratopsia

Chasmosaurus belli

Late Cretaceous, Alberta

Of the long-frilled Ceratopsian dinosaurs of the Late Cretaceous, Chasmosaurus (“Ravine Reptile”) is the earliest known. Extending from the back of the creature’s head, a sturdy, spiked frill protected its neck and part of its back.

Large openings in the frill reduced the weight of the bone mass. It had 2 small horns over the brows and one on its parrot-beaked snout. Living in large, migrating herds and measuring over 16 feet in length, these herbivorous grazers have been found in Alberta, New Mexico, and Texas. Though not as well-equipped as its descendant, Triceratops (“Three Horned Face”), Chasmosaurus was capable of warding off attacks by fierce tyrannosaurs.

Females of the genus are distinguished by their diminutive horns. This impressive creature was one of the first dinosaurs to be found along with an impression of its skin, the patterns of its large mosaic scales suggesting contrasting color patterns.

Could Scientists Bring Dinosaurs Back to Life?

Is Jurassic Park Possible?

Maybe...But Should They?

From the Natural History Museum in London.

...DNA breaks down over time. The dinosaurs went extinct around 66 million years ago and with so much time having passed it is very unlikely that any dinosaur DNA would remain today. While dinosaur bones can survive for millions of years, dinosaur DNA almost certainly does not.

But some scientists continue to search for it - just in case.

So it looks like cloning a dinosaur is off the table, but an alternate way to recreate the extinct animals would be to reverse-engineer one. This involves starting with a living animal and working backward towards ancient reptiles, attempting to reverse at least 66 million years of evolution.

Susie explains, 'You could take a chicken and genetically engineer it so it has teeth or a long tail. But even if you do, it's not a dinosaur, because it was reverse-engineered.'

However, recreating dinosaurs or any other extinct animal can throw up some ethical dilemmas.

'What is it going to eat when grass hadn't evolved back then? What is its function, where do we put it, does anyone own it?'

An attempt to resurrect dinosaurs presents many caveats scientifically and ethically - making things to put in zoos or amusement parks like Jurassic World likely isn't the answer. So for now dinosaurs are probably going to remain safely in the past. But using genetic engineering to bring back extinct animals might be considered reasonable in some circumstances.

'I think there is potentially an argument for bringing back something that we humans made extinct. So if someone was going to bring back the passenger pigeon, then I think you could justify that. They were living in a modern ecosystem and could fit in.'

Jurassic Park may not have got dinosaur resurrection quite right, but nevertheless, it did make one particularly worthy point, Susie concludes: As Dr. Malcolm says in Jurassic Park - "just because you can, doesn't mean that you should."

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MoAW's mission is to educate a diverse audience about the history of ancient civilizations and prehistoric life using fossils and artifacts from a variety of cultures and time periods; to enhance universal curriculum development for local and surrounding school districts, colleges, and universities while establishing museum diversity for the Coachella Valley.

MoAW is a 501(c)(3) Tax-Exempt Organization; Members of the

California Association of Museums (CAM), and the American Alliance of Museums (AAM).

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