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Living Dinosaurs!

To return to the gist of the original post, whilst I doubt that the military are exploring the weaponisation of cloned dinosaurs, genetic manipulation could possibly produce a reasonably convincing dinosaur, as this BBC report suggests:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/earth/story/20150512-bird-grows-face-of-dinosaur

Start with an ostrich embryo , add the genetic code for a snout with teeth instead of a bill and tinker with the wings and tail a bit and you wouldn't be that far removed from a velociraptor or similar dino.
 
Start with an ostrich embryo , add the genetic code for a snout with teeth instead of a bill and tinker with the wings and tail a bit and you wouldn't be that far removed from a velociraptor or similar dino.
What could possibly go wrong?
 
What could possibly go wrong?

I'm not saying it would be easy but, if they can give a chicken an alligator-like head, then starting with today's largest bird kinda gives you a headstart if you're looking to recreate a theropod dinosaur!
 
I'm not saying it would be easy but, if they can give a chicken an alligator-like head, then starting with today's largest bird kinda gives you a headstart if you're looking to recreate a theropod dinosaur!
We've kept chickens and I can tell you they are horrible creatures. They attack each other, eat eggs and woe betide any unfortunate other creature that gets into the run. Other birds, mice, frogs, even single rats are pecked to death and then eaten...I'm not sure it would be wise to give a chicken 50lb's of muscle and a set of teeth.
 
We've kept chickens and I can tell you they are horrible creatures. They attack each other, eat eggs and woe betide any unfortunate other creature that gets into the run. Other birds, mice, frogs, even single rats are pecked to death and then eaten...I'm not sure it would be wise to give a chicken 50lb's of muscle and a set of teeth.

Sounds like they're half-way to becoming velociraptors anyway!
 
I've never seen a chicken that size before. A freak of nature!
It could almost be a 'great mambo' chicken.
 
Well, all newts and salamanders have tails... you might be thinking of the axolotl keeping its gills into adulthood (neoteny) which occurs in a few other salamanders as well.

There is one family of frogs, the Ascaphidae, called 'tailed frogs', which appear to have a tail, but it's actually a sort of penis.

Just noticed this older post. Actually there's an entire family of amphibians that maintain gills throughout there life span. One swims in the lakes near my residence and gets quite large (the mudpuppy). Here's some scientific info on that family.

http://tolweb.org/Proteidae/15449
 
Dinosaur-like animal carcass discovered with the flesh still intact baffles scientists

The carcass of an animal that resembles a dinosaur was unearthed by an electrician who was cleaning out a substation abandoned for years in the north Indian town of Jaspur, Uttarakhand. The partially-preserved carcass still has its flesh intact and it seems to be too well preserved for it to be the remains of a prehistoric animal.

Scientists, who have started studying the creature, say flightless dinosaurs have been extinct for over 65 million years, making this find all the more mysterious. "It looks like a dinosaur, but we can't say anything until all the tests are done," said Parag Madhukar Dhakate, a conservator with the Indian Forest Service.



http://www.ibtimes.co.uk/dinosaur-l...flesh-still-intact-baffles-scientists-1651911
 
Looks like a rodent of some sort to me ...
 
Big rat looks possible, but the large incisors don't seem to be present.
If those fragments below the cranium are disarticulated portions of the front limbs, then the overall shape is a possible match for a young fox carcase.
PSX_20171219_142720.jpg
 
I believe it's virtually impossible to identify the animal based on the data provided. It could even be a hoax. If it warrants further study then the DNA will-could prove very interesting.
 
This is what Karl Shuker thinks, I got it via Paul Sieveking:

Here’s what Karl Shuker said:

Hi Paul,

I think that it is the desiccated ('mummified') carcase of a mongoose. It's certainly a small carnivorous mammal (as shown by its dentition), and the broad base of its tail and relatively straight claws indicate mongoose (herpestid) more than, say, marten or some other mustelid. Also, mongooses are very common in this Indian region, and often inhabit human dwellings, so its presence in an abandoned warehouse is not overly surprising.

All the best, Karl

 
I really hope one exist. Even in the Congo, the Amazon, New Guinea, etc. I really believe for something as startling as a dinosaur to be still lurking is highly unlikely at best. As far as large cryptic reptiles, perhaps a new species of large monitor or crocodilian exist?
For example Mekosuchus inexpectatus (a land crocodile) from New Caledonia has only been extinct for a only a few thousand years "not that it was that large". A point in case that a very different species of reptile was alive not that long ago.
 
I really hope one exist. Even in the Congo, the Amazon, New Guinea, etc. I really believe for something as startling as a dinosaur to be still lurking is highly unlikely at best. As far as large cryptic reptiles, perhaps a new species of large monitor or crocodilian exist?
For example Mekosuchus inexpectatus (a land crocodile) from New Caledonia has only been extinct for a only a few thousand years "not that it was that large". A point in case that a very different species of reptile was alive not that long ago.

At the risk of sounding like a pedant there are around 10,000 species of dinosaur alive today, as for the non-Avialan sort though, there's no chance.

Apart from M. inexpectatus, there were large horned, club tailed land turtles there which died out at least as recently, their remains having been found in prehistoric middens. Also of course there were large dinosaurs proper much more recently again, the moa of New Zealand, and the elephant birds of Madagascar.

There are definitely some amazing discoveries to be found among the other living Archosaurs, crocodiles, alligators and garials, but the most profound probably won't be made in the field. In at least one species uni-flow respiration has been found, and big questions remain, whether they're secondarily 'cold blooded', and descended from endothermic/heterthermic/mesothermic ancestors, and did those ancestors have feathers?
 
Not wanting to argue but my latest sources classify birds as the last of the dinosaurs. I realize theories come and go on a ready basis but many dinos show readily the evidence of proto-feathers and actual feathers including members of the T rex family. According to these theories the T rex was feathered in their youth losing many feathers as they matured.
 
The only fossil remains of T-Rex (with fossilized outer covering) seem to have been scaled. I cited just one article. but there are more. No immature-young T-Rex's with feathers have been found with feathers. Numerous dinosaurs were feathered, as proven by finds in China-Mongolia, etc.. During the Late Jurassic, birds likely branched off from small, predatory tetrapod dinosaurs, becoming a separate family (I believe phylum is the correct term?). So although they're related, they're not one and the same.

My take (for what it's worth) is that at 1st the scientific community thought that all dinosaurs were scaled. Then as evidence of dinosaurs with feathers was uncovered some in the scientific community went over to the opposite end of the spectrum and began assuming most were feathered. The truth likely lies in the in-between.
 
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