For a more complete record of my ignorance on this subject:
Many people have been following the unfolding dinosaur soft tissue story since it broke in 2005. The millions of years community (MOYC) fought tooth and nail to deny that original tissue was found in a TREX dinosaur.
In time, the reality of original dinosaur soft tissue, blood vessels etc. sank in and then all of the sudden it was amazing to everyone in the MOYC that this biological material could last for millions of years. The fact that broken dinosaur bones commonly smell like rotting corpses only increased the
astonisment that someting could rot for 65 milllllllion yeeeeeeeers..amazing.
Then came the ancient DNA discoveries:
DNA sequence from Cretaceous period bone fragments. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/7973705
Amplification and sequencing of DNA from a 120-135-million-year-old weevil. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/8505978
Then the MOYC decided en masse that it was simply amazing how DNA could last for millions of years.
My original post pointed out a very significant study that changes the emotional (as opposed to logical) landscape of the MOYC yet again. Here's the citation:
Allentoft, M. E. et al. 2012 The half-life of DNA in bone: measuring decay kinetics in 158 dated fossils. Proceedings of the Royal Society B. 279 (1748): 4224-4733.
This study of extinct Moa bird bones in New Zealand puts the half life of DNA at 500 ~ years, meaning that detectable DNA traces will disappear by 10,000 ~ years.
Now, this peer-reviewed study should cause thinking people to question the Millions of Years paradigm, and it does just that for many. But not for the hard core believers.
If you do a google search you'll find the MOYC are simply sad because it will not be possible to clone a dinosaur since it is now proven that dna degrades so quickly. They are sad that they wont get to play with dinos. Nevermind that this study destroys Evolution Theory, playing with cloned dinos ....that what this is all about right? ..... but I digress.
The real game changer for the MOYC is that they are now forced to scream CONTAMINATION for EVERY single positive ancient DNA sequencing test. It's the only stick they have left in which to beat those that question the traditional paradigm. But, carefully documented studies on Dinosaur DNA like the one described in my OP will increasingly make this "last-stand" argument less and less easy to prop up.
It's getting close to "Check Mate"