Weve seen this movie before.
Acclaimed paleontologist Jack Horner, who inspired the character Dr. Alan Grant of the Jurassic Park franchise, recently told People magazine he believes we are about five years away from bringing back dinosaurs.
Horner, who consulted on all the films, previously said scientists would need ancient DNA in order to re-create dinosaurs (like, say, DNA caught in a mosquito encased in amber).
But now, Horner and a group of scientists from Harvard and Yale believe researchers could use the modern-day chicken to bring back dinosaurs.
He said such technology is roughly five to 10 years away.
Of course, birds are dinosaurs," Horner told People magazine. "So we just need to fix them so they look a little more like a dinosaur."
According to Entrepreneur, the research team has already worked on mutating chickens so they can be more like dinosaurs.
Specifically, Horner and his research team have made genetic changes to chickens to change their beaks into a snout, which was more common among dinos.
Such a creation, he said, would be called a Chickensoraus.
Heres how he explains it:
"Basically what we do is we go into an embryo that's just beginning to form, and use some genetic markers to sort of identify when certain genes turn on and when they turn off. And by determining when certain genes turn on, we can sort of figure out how a tail begins to develop. And we want to fix that gene so it doesn't stop the tail from growing. We can make a bird with teeth, and we can change its mouth.
Actually, the wings and hands are not as difficult, Horner said The tail is the biggest project. But on the other hand, we have been able to do some things recently that have given us hope that it won't take too long."
Of course, we've seen this theory play out in the "Jurassic Park" films, the most recent of which, "Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom," arrives in theaters Friday.
In previous "Jurassic Park" films, the dinosaurs wreak havoc in their human counterparts' lives, often eating humans and destroying parks in the process.
Acclaimed paleontologist Jack Horner, who inspired the character Dr. Alan Grant of the Jurassic Park franchise, recently told People magazine he believes we are about five years away from bringing back dinosaurs.
Horner, who consulted on all the films, previously said scientists would need ancient DNA in order to re-create dinosaurs (like, say, DNA caught in a mosquito encased in amber).
But now, Horner and a group of scientists from Harvard and Yale believe researchers could use the modern-day chicken to bring back dinosaurs.
He said such technology is roughly five to 10 years away.
Of course, birds are dinosaurs," Horner told People magazine. "So we just need to fix them so they look a little more like a dinosaur."
According to Entrepreneur, the research team has already worked on mutating chickens so they can be more like dinosaurs.
Specifically, Horner and his research team have made genetic changes to chickens to change their beaks into a snout, which was more common among dinos.
Such a creation, he said, would be called a Chickensoraus.
Heres how he explains it:
"Basically what we do is we go into an embryo that's just beginning to form, and use some genetic markers to sort of identify when certain genes turn on and when they turn off. And by determining when certain genes turn on, we can sort of figure out how a tail begins to develop. And we want to fix that gene so it doesn't stop the tail from growing. We can make a bird with teeth, and we can change its mouth.
Actually, the wings and hands are not as difficult, Horner said The tail is the biggest project. But on the other hand, we have been able to do some things recently that have given us hope that it won't take too long."
Of course, we've seen this theory play out in the "Jurassic Park" films, the most recent of which, "Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom," arrives in theaters Friday.
In previous "Jurassic Park" films, the dinosaurs wreak havoc in their human counterparts' lives, often eating humans and destroying parks in the process.
