Nature finds a way
As long as they only create female dinosaurs I do not see what could possibly go wrong.
Dinosaur embryos wiggled around in their eggs just like the embryos of modern birds, scientists have found. The boffins made the discovery after a cache of fossilised dino bones and eggs were dug up in southwest China. The scientists are hoping to find out more about the Jurassic-era creatures by analysing remnants of complex …
>Of course, that's exactly what they would say, while they're quietly buying up an island in the pacific and installing their top secret "research facility / safari park" before anyone notices...
Somewhere near where they had the radiation leak in Japan. That would make sure no tourists accidentally landed there.
"Raptors can open doors, but they are slowed by them. Using the floor plan on the next page, plot a route through the building, assuming raptors take 5 minutes to open the first door and half the time for each subsequent door. Remember, raptors run at 10 m/s and they do not know fear."
This *forced* me to look up xkcd raptor cartoons ;)
http://xkcd.com/292/
http://xkcd.com/87/
http://xkcd.com/758/
http://xkcd.com/135/
Might be good to release a batch of them in North Korea. Not only would it give the Nork's military something useful to do, but it would also be a new food source. That would have to be a win-win situation!
Dave
P.S. I'll get my coat. It's the one with the "Tastes like chicken" labels in the pocket.
There's a good article in the April issue of National Geographic about the current state of play of the technology involved in cloning extinct species, and as I understand it the current approach is to pick a similar species, modify individuals of that species so that their genetic payload corresponds to that of the species you want to breed, then have them mate. The idea is that it's possible to create certain gene sequences and implant them as required, but you need a suitable recipient for the idea to work.
Apparently there are folk working on the passenger pigeon and the sabre-toothed tiger, so while dinosaurs might be out we could at some point see formerly-extinct species revived through the unholy artsscience.
(For those interested, the article is here.)
A-ha! This can't possibly be true. After all, the religious creationist nutters are quite adamant that the earth is only a few thousand years old and who would dare to disagree with that, for fear of being struck down by a thunderbolt or coming to a premature end, compelled to live in an oven for all eternity? (Snigger)
http://www.necn.com/04/11/13/Ancient-creature-mixed-human-apelike-tra/landing_scitech.html?&apID=ad866428c3ce44239b62189d1761851d
"NEW YORK (AP) — Scientists have gained new insights into an extinct South African creature with an intriguing mix of human and apelike traits, and apparently an unusual way of walking. But they still haven't pinned down where it fits on our evolutionary family tree.
It will take more fossil discoveries to sort that out.
The human branch of the evolutionary tree, called Homo, is thought to have arisen from a group of ancient species called australopithecines. The newly studied species is a member of this group, and so its similarities to humans are enticing for tackling the riddle of how Homo appeared.
It's called Australopithecus sediba (aw-STRAL-oh-PITH-uh-kus se-DEE-bah), which means "southern ape, wellspring." It lived some 2 million years ago, and it both climbed in trees and walked upright. Its remains were discovered in 2008 when the 9-year-old son of a paleoanthropologist accidently came across a bone in South Africa.
A 2011 analysis of some of A. sediba's bones showed a combination of human and more apelike traits, like a snapshot of evolution in action. That theme continues in six papers published online Thursday by the journal Science, which complete the initial examination of two partial skeletons and an isolated shinbone."