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| Dr. Steve (left), Dr. Indiana (center) and Dr. Samuel (right) admiring a fossil bone of an Edmontosaurus |
My trusty junior photographer, Daniel P. Smithwater and I
both got a kick out of this next story. Dr. Steve Stevenson PhD at Animal
Adventures Institute (AAI) is back to his cloning projects. His latest attempt
is to clone the extinct creatures brought back from the Adamson’s trip. Dr.
Samuel and Indiana Adamson PhD are two married paleontologists who have worked
in just about every corner of the world. Recently, their trips to western North
America, Russia, and Europe have revealed the fossils of numerous extinct
creatures. “I have cloned quite a few other extinct animals, including
dinosaurs,” Dr. Steve says. “I can’t wait to get started once again.” The
animals brought back from the fossil digs are a large hadrosaur or duckbilled
dinosaur called Edmontosaurus, a small pachycephalesaur or bone-headed dinosaur
called Dracorex, a large pterosaur or flying reptile called Hatzegopteryx, a
sharp-toothed gorgonopsid called Inostrancevia and a turtle-like reptile called
Scutosaurus. Dr. Samuel Adamson believes these fossils hold proteins inside
them, and proteins could contain DNA, and if we have DNA, then it is possible
to clone the dinosaur or other extinct animal. “These fossils weren’t preserved
in the best preservation state,” Dr. Samuel says, “but they could be a lot
worse. At least we can tell what they are. Some fossils we have dug up in the
past are in a terrible state and we can’t give the slightest clue of what it
is.” The fossil bones are taken out of the ground and then shipped by
helicopter back to Animal Adventures Institute in Riverville, New York. That is
when Dr. Steve comes in. He then examines the bones and takes a very
thin slice of each species and
looks at them under the microscope to see if they are viable for
cloning. If
they are then he takes the slice, makes a mold for it so it can be put
back on
the original fossils and then he must extract the DNA out of the bones
by using
a super computer. Dr. Steve shares the rest of the cloning process,
“After the
DNA is out of the bone and the computer is finished working on it . . .
well,
I’m not sure how much you know about genes and DNA, but fossil DNA is
not
complete. It’s full of fragments. This is what has caused scientists
trouble
for years!” Dr. Steve has had a rich history when it comes to his
cloning
experience. In the 1990’s, Dr. Steve was one of the first scientists to
help
with cloning dinosaurs. He was cloning dinosaurs for a type of zoo
called
Cretaceous Park and they experienced the DNA gap issues. The head
geneist (a
gene and DNA scientist) at the time was Dr. Lora Sorkin (contrary to
popular belief, she was not killed by a prehistoric creature as everyone
believes). She suggested that the
park take some time and figure out how to get the full DNA sequence. But
the
board of directors didn’t want to take that kind of time, so she was
“kicked”
out of the lab and sent to do field research. Dr. Henri Wu was the
replacement
chief geneist. He was hired to be chief geneist because he was able to
figure
out that you could fill the DNA gaps with frog DNA and get the job done
quickly. Nowadays though, Dr. Steve had figured out how to fill in those
gaps
without frog DNA (which can produce some strange dinosaurs). He instead
just
uses dinosaur DNA from multiple fossil samples of the same species to
complete
the sequence. “We don’t know yet which of the fossils yield DNA,” says
Dr.
Steve, “but we also have what I call a ‘fossil storage’ out back where
we’ve
put all our unidentified bones from previous digs and there’s some
pretty cool
stuff in there.” What wonders will Steve clone? We’ll just have to wait
and see
. . .
Written by: Mr. Smiley
Photographer: Daniel P. Smithwater
Edited by: Christian
Ryan
Weekly Cartoons
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