This article states that proteins were proven to be sequenced, and soft stretchy tissue including collegen were found in this specimen, not DNA. Notable, the article did not state that they did not find DNA. But "ancient" "million" year old DNA is not unheard of at all and is reported all over the internet from what appears to be reliable sources.
Michigan State University has this from an article on their website:
Insects are commonly preserved in amber after being caught in the sticky resin emitted by some trees as a defense mechanism(Morell 46). In 1982, Roberta and George Poinar identified intact cellular components such as nuclei, ribosomes, and chromosomes in insects embedded in amber, but were unable to isolate DNA at that time (Lundberg 22). The first successful DNA extraction was from an extinct termite, Mastotermes electrodominicus, by the team at the American Museum of Natural History headed by David Grimaldi (Grimaldi 59). These termites were found in amber from the Dominican Republic. This species is defined by the large, fan-like lobe at the base of its hind wings and by many wing veins. The perplexity is that these characteristics are also given to cockroaches, which evolved before the mastotermes; thus, evolutionary lines cannot be defined on such simple characteristics and need to have more exclusive traits to the species in order to establish the evolutionary unit. Another concern was the “missing link” between termites and cockroaches: Is the Mastotermes electrodominicus closer related to termites or cockroaches (Grimaldi 60)? Scientists are able to establish such links by doing evolutionary comparison between ancient and modern DNA (Morell 46). Fragments of mitochondrial DNA of Mastotermes electrodominicus were amplified using the polymerase chain reaction and then linked to the modern-day termite Mastotermes darwiensis (Lundberg 22). Ancient DNA has also been extracted from stingless bees being studied by Raul Cano and from a 123 million year old extinct weevil examined by George Poinar (Morell 46). As Grimaldi writes, “While it is a long way from amplifying a bit of DNA to reconstructing a whole dinosaur - or even a termite - these new developments open up many exciting scientific possibilities” (59). ..... Mary Schweitzer, graduate student of paleontologist Jack Horner, extracted DNA found sealed away in the dense marrow of a 65 million year old Tyrannosaurus rex bone.
And then there is this announcement from Peking University:
DNA Ioslation and Sequence Analysis of Dinosaur DNA from Cretaceous
Dinosaur Egg in Xixia Henan, China
LI Yi, AN Chengcai, ZHU Yuxian, ZHANG Yun, LIU Yifei, QU Lin, YOU Lingtao
LIANG Xiaowen, LI Xiaohua, QU Lijia, ZHOU Zengquan, CHEN Zhangliang
(College of Life Sciences, Peking University, Beijing, 100871)
- Abstract:
- DNA was extracted from 70-80 million year old dinosaur egg excavated from Cretaceous belt formation in Xixia Henan, China. The DNA samples from both outer shell and inner floccule contents were used as templates in polymerase chain reactions (PCR) with a specific primer and hexamers. With these two primers a 150 bp DNA fragment has been amplified, cloned and sequenced. Deduced amino acid sequence of this dinosaur DNA has been compared with known protein sequences in EMBL Bank. The results showed that it has significant homology with Xenopus laevis epithelia precuraor- EP-cadherin (40.6%) and brain-cadherin (37.5%), bovine placental cadherin (34.4%) and human placental cadherin (36.4%), respectively.
I predict that within two years that 65 "million" year old DNA will be proven to have been extracted from dinosaur bones. Meanwhile, I'll continue to grill up my soft stretchy tissue each Saturday instead of going door to door.
Leoliola, that was a joke. Meaning it was intended to be funny. When I count down and say zero.... you may giggle.
