"Dinosaur Resurrection"

Are the dinosaurs in Jurassic Park and other related movies completely fiction, or could it really be possible to view these ancient reptiles in our modern society today? Is it really possible to revive the fossils of ancient dinosaurs? The article “Dinosaur Resurrection” from Discover magazine suggests a way to bring back our old reptile friends, but in a way that one would not expect.
The article opens by introducing Hans Larsson, one of the world’s top paleontologists, who has outlined a plan to bring back the dinosaurs. He is not interested in reviving the actual dinosaur fossil, but rather in changing the regulation of active genes in embryos, such as a chicken’s, to bring back ancestral traits that may have been lost in the past. By tracing these traits back many years, he might be able molecularly construct a dinosaur from an embryo such as a chicken’s.
The article uses birds as an example to illustrate Larsson’s point. “…the absence of a tail, the difference between wings and grasping forearms, and the absence of teeth are all subtle evolutionary changes on a basic dinosaur plan. Why not return an ancient developmental process in a bird embryo, this time triggering the signals to produce a grasping forelimb or a long tail?” (52).
Larsson is currently studying the growth of the tail and is working on making an embryo’s tail continue growing. The article continues by explaining several problems Larsson has had in his work, such as the embryonic tail halting its growth, and concludes by saying that building a dinosaur requires more than just a tail, but thousands of other qualities as well. Larsson is confident that this step is just step one in the process of growing a dinosaur.
This article is a fascinating description of Larsson’s plan to create a modern dinosaur. Upon first reading the article, I was somewhat disappointed because Larsson and his team have not really resurrected any dinosaurs; they have just established an outline for creating a dinosaur from a chicken embryo. When I read the article for a second time, I began to really appreciate Larsson’s plan because I realized this step is only the first step in growing a dinosaur.
The article focuses a lot on trying to make the embryo grow a tail. If the process of growing a tail takes this long, will all the other characteristics of a dinosaur take this long to develop as well? It seems as if this process would take an enormous amount of time to complete if Larsson and his team went into very great detail to create a dinosaur. There are billions of genes, and is it really possible to change each one without human error?
I am still left with the question: is it really possible to view ancient dinosaurs in our world today? By combining my own knowledge and the content of the article, I believe that it is possible to create an animal with some characteristics of an ancient dinosaur, but it is nearly impossible to create a dinosaur from the past. If Larsson and his team create this dinosaur, the dinosaur will be a new species due to all the changes they have done to the embryo to make it a dinosaur, while leaving some characteristics of a chicken. Lastly, I think of all the different combinations of animals that could be artificially created. If it is possible to create a dinosaur from a chicken embryo, then wouldn’t it be possible to create any animal from any embryo, creating millions of new species of animals? The thought of all these different creations and combinations is immense. In summary, we are still on the baby steps of trying to develop a chicken with a tail. But maybe in the near future, man will be able to create a living dinosaur from only a chicken embryo.