Reverse Engineering a Dinosaur?

[Minimalist]

Fantastic shit.  Ken Ham will shit a brick.

http://www.bbc.com/earth/story/20150512-...f-dinosaur

They found that birds have a unique cluster of genes related to facial development, which the non-beaked creatures lacked.

When they silenced these genes, the beak structure reverted back to its ancestral state. So too did the palatal bone in the roof of the mouth.

[Anomalocaris]

Fantastic shit.  Ken Ham will shit a brick.

http://www.bbc.com/earth/story/20150512-...f-dinosaur

They found that birds have a unique cluster of genes related to facial development, which the non-beaked creatures lacked.

When they silenced these genes, the beak structure reverted back to its ancestral state. So too did the palatal bone in the roof of the mouth.

What's new?   Didn't ken ham's mother already reverse engineered a dinosaur in giving him birth? 

[SteelCurtain]

So, turn off the gene expression for facial formation, chicken reverts to earlier state... No information was added.... Interesting.

Jesus!

[Minimalist]

I saw a documentary about this a year or so ago.  Amazing shit.  Evidence of evolution.

Of course, for creatards nothing would be evidence but who gives a shit about those morons.

[Alex K]

I read Jack Horner's "how to built a dinosaur" a couple of years ago.

[Thumpalumpacus]

Yeah, I read about this yesterday. Stuff like this, or hox genes, shows that phenotypic expression is a lot more complex than "Gene A = feature B".

[Angrboda]

Darn, they didn't raise them from embryos into juveniles. *sigh*

[Anomalocaris]

So, turn off the gene expression for facial formation, chicken reverts to earlier state... No information was added.... Interesting.

Jesus!

 It's not so much reverting to earlier state, as unlocking Differernt combinations of expressions of existing genes, some of which have already been expressed earlier during the species evolutionary history.

Many evolutionary changes came about not by creation of new genes, but by turning on, or turning off, or changing the time of development of different preexisting genes.  For example, many of the major changes that accompanied evolution of modern humans involved tempering with the individual maturation rates of features already encoded in our ancester's genes.   In fact the distinct flat face and mouth of HSS came about by turning off the genes which cause chimps to grow a snout as chimp infant mature into chimp adult.  In fact we retained a infant chimp's lower face and lower jaw through life while the rest of us grew up.   If someone were to dare, it would not be hard to make a human infant grow a snout as he matures into adulthood by turning off the gene which keeps human lower skull from maturing as we grow up, 

[SteelCurtain]

Darn, they didn't raise them from embryos into juveniles.  *sigh*

Right?!?

Would have been sweet to have a little Compsognathus. Chicken Compy!

[Anomalocaris]

Darn, they didn't raise them from embryos into juveniles.  *sigh*

Right?!?

Would have been sweet to have a little Compsognathus. Chicken Compy!

Gene manipulation that result in major structural change in one go is usually not clean.    Often other tissues and structures around it fail to adapt.    The result most likely won't survive.   

Even though we had 6 million years to evolve the retention of infant chimp jaws through adulthood, our structures and tissues around our Jaws haven't fully adapted.   The consequence is our jaws are too short and too small for our adult teeth.  Which is why very few humans are naturally spared from having crooked teeth.  Most chimps won't need orthrodontists. Chimps have the long snout and big jaw their teeth were adapted to.  So their teeth don't come out crooked.