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What would it take to bring back the dinosaurs?

thewalrus.ca

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Re: What would it take to bring back the dinosaurs?

#41
post #38

The dinosaurs lived in an incomprehensibly different world. From the food and nutrition to the very air they were breathing which we only have vague ideas about. That means the first several generations at the very least would suffer and die from various nutrition, toxicity and environment issues. Even after all that got figured out the dinosaurs would likely have be confined to some small controlled environment righ…

As far as I understand, keeping such creatures alive would require facilities with enriched oxygen. If the large ones escaped, they would suffocate. "...large dinosaurs really required to be living in an oxygen tent. An atmosphere in the neighborhood of 35 percent oxygen would be considerably more compatible with large dinosaurs than one in the neighborhood of 28." Volcanic activity in the Cretaceous enabled these hi…

Oxygen only one part and for all we know there were other trace gasses in the air they required that we don't even know about.

There are all kinds of animals today we cannot keep alive in captivity because they require some sort of unknown sequence of environmental triggers to activate or deactivate various processes in their body.

For instance cheetahs are nearly impossible to breed in captivity because their mating process requires running for many miles to exhaustion. Without this the pregnancy rate is in the abyss even with artificial methods. There are endless examples thats just one off the top of my head.

Re: What would it take to bring back the dinosaurs?

#42

I remember in the 90s, when they cloned Polly (or Molly? I don’t remember), people predicted crazy future where we keep cloning animals and one day maybe humans. I don’t hear much about cloning recently. What happened?

Don't know about the second question, but I think you are thinking of Dolly the sheep:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dolly_(sheep)

Re: What would it take to bring back the dinosaurs?

#43

I remember in the 90s, when they cloned Polly (or Molly? I don’t remember), people predicted crazy future where we keep cloning animals and one day maybe humans. I don’t hear much about cloning recently. What happened?

The sheep was named Dolly, after Dolly Parton, because the cell used for cloning was taken from a mammary gland.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dolly_(sheep)

Re: What would it take to bring back the dinosaurs?

#44

I remember in the 90s, when they cloned Polly (or Molly? I don’t remember), people predicted crazy future where we keep cloning animals and one day maybe humans. I don’t hear much about cloning recently. What happened?

Apparently it's become so commonplace among pets that my dog's veterinary insurance policy specifically has an exclusion saying that our pet insurance does not cover cloning. I just googled "Dog Cloning" and there were a bunch of results offering the service.

Re: What would it take to bring back the dinosaurs?

#45

The dinosaurs lived in an incomprehensibly different world. From the food and nutrition to the very air they were breathing which we only have vague ideas about. That means the first several generations at the very least would suffer and die from various nutrition, toxicity and environment issues. Even after all that got figured out the dinosaurs would likely have be confined to some small controlled environment righ…

Life.. uh.. finds a way

Life "finds a way" by evolving adaptations. Not by running obsolete technology in an inappropriate environment.

Life has found a way - we are it!

Re: What would it take to bring back the dinosaurs?

#48

I love thought experiments like these, One would have to think where could ancient dinosaur DNA survive? Antarctica has been covered by ice for 5 million years, that is still 60 million years too young. Maybe there are a few bugs that have dino dna that is better preserved than the stuff that has been exposed to sunlight and elements the past 5 million years. And even if there is viable dna you would have to drill do…

Only one way to find out!

Re: What would it take to bring back the dinosaurs?

#49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We want Ornitishian dinosaurs, too.

Sauropods, particularly. And while we are at it, pterosaurs, which are not dinosaurs, and mosasaurs, likewise. All are equally plausible, meaning not . The original article is actually promoting inventing new animals that look like dinosaurs. Or rather what we guess they looked like. We might be able to do that, someday. Anything that looks like a sauropod would need solutions for all the problems anything sauropod-s…

Sauropods are Saurischian not Ornitishian. But you are right, we want them too.

The vw sized heart was in a dinosaur show when I was a kid. Either David Norman or Bob Baker stood below a brachiosaur and told the audience about the heart. wow 30 years. Time flies.

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