Scientist's Dino Findings Making Waves

Scientist Thinks a "Dino Chicken" Could Be Created in Five Years By Reversing Evolution

(CBS)  There is something about dinosaurs that captures the imagination - giant, mysterious animals that roamed the Earth for millions of years, now gone forever.

All they've left us are their fossils, the dried-out mineral remnants of the creatures they once were, with the organic material that gave them life long gone. Or so everyone always thought.

Until B. "Rex," a 68 million year old Tyrannosaurus Rex, who was dug up and named by a paleontologist from Montana State University whose unorthodox approach to dinosaurs may be changing the whole dino ballgame.

When thinking of dinosaurs, most of us think "Jurassic Park," the 1993 classic film about a dinosaur resurrection experiment gone wrong, and its embattled hero, famed paleontologist Alan Grant.

Web Extra: Dino Chicken
Web Extra: Evo Devo
Book: How to Build a Dinosaur
Montana State University: Museum of the Rockies
North Carolina State University: Dr. Mary Schweitzer
Sean Carroll

60 Minutes correspondent Lesley Stahl met Jack Horner, the real-life Alan Grant who consulted on all of the "Jurassic Park" movies.

Fortunately for him, Horner joked, Grant didn't get eaten.

Jack Horner is one of the most prominent and controversial paleontologists in the country - a dyslexic MacArthur Foundation genius who never finished college, and who says he doesn't care why dinosaurs went extinct.

To him, the important part is how they lived. "I'm trying to figure out the biology of dinosaurs and what they were like as living creatures," he told Stahl.

"You wanna know what their behavior was, how they treated their young," Stahl asked.

"I wanna know everything we can know about them and make one if we can," he replied with a smile.

Make a dinosaur? The things Horner says make him a maverick, but the finds he has made, including more T. Rexes than anyone else in the world, make him a legend.

One of his finds include the teeth of the oldest T. Rex ever found, which Horner pulled out of a drawer in the Collections area of his Museum of the Rockies in Bozeman, Mont., and showed Stahl.

"This little pocket right here in the teeth is where the next tooth sits. Dinosaurs replace their teeth throughout their life. And T. Rex replaced all of their teeth every year," Horner explained.

But Horner is most famous for discovering a kinder, gentler side of dinosaurs.

In the badlands of Montana, he and his team uncovered the first dinosaur nesting ground in the world - a vast landscape full of eggs, nests, and babies that helped change our image of dinosaurs.

Thanks to Horner's influence, "Jurassic Park" showed that most dinosaurs were social animals who lived in colonies, and he has found evidence they actually cared for their young.

"So, this is the tibia, the shin bone. And this is a little less than a month old. And here, here is the same bone," he told Stahl, showing her a much bigger bone.

Stahl assumed the larger bone belonged to an adult, but Horner corrected her: though much larger, this specimen belonged to a one-year-old.

Horner figured out that such rapidly growing baby dinosaurs couldn't walk at first, meaning their parents were bringing food back to them in the nest, like birds. His discoveries lent support to a then-controversial but now widely accepted theory that dinosaurs actually gave rise to modern birds.

"If a little kid today who studies all this in school and they look up in the sky and see a bird and turn to mom and say, 'You know, that's a dinosaur'…," Stahl remarked.

"They're right," Horner replied.

[mtntexas]

When I was just a kid we lived next door to Dick Cheney and we were digging over next to his fence and we started pulliong out bones left and right but then we found some with blood all over 'em so we knew thatey weren't from a long time ago.

[Aaron_B_Butcher]

Whether or not Jesus lived, his message of peace and love is worth following. It was said somewhere that there are more things in heavan and earth than we will ever understand. It doesn't say don't try. I don't even think the bible says we shouldn't try to understand stuff. I'm not afraid of dinosaurs. I'm afraid of the Hadron Super Collider. Now THAT's dangerously mad science!

[ranger2930]

Whoa, Wow, Geez... how this thing turned partisan - liberals, conservatives, bible thumping weirdos, god said this, said that... the scientists are evil! It's Obamas fault. Give it a break. They are just talking about building a dinosaur, what's the big deal? When these Dino-Chickens come out and they are at Walmart all the Jesus for Lunch Bunch will be the first in line for one. I want one to guard my chicken coop. Be a good match for some of these racoons around here, dont cha think?

[farmersdaughter68]

Hooray! Someone that really gets it. Lighten up people. Jack Horner's research and discoveries are truly amazing. I have personally met Jack Horner and if nothing else he inspired my then 5-year-old daughter to have dreams of becoming a paleontologist. Is that evil?

[HawkeyePeering]

Well I guess evolution has just become extinct! There are already two live dinsaurs at the Pittsburgh zoo. We call them komodo dragons, on or about 1630's dragon's names became dinosaurs. Steve Irwin called the komodo dragons, modern day dragons, and he is right. God love him.

[killiangeeslin]

Ha u liberals are hilarious ripping the bible like its all lies and propaganda from the ROMANS. What about all the historical facts that are recorded about the new testament. Jesus was live and he died and that stuff is true and was witnessed by human eyes. But wait ur evolution oh that has zero eye witnesses and so many gaps u could fit the whole universe through it. You people are blind by a few facts and dont see the whole picture and we all know that carbon dating is innacurate so dont go there.

[j0on5]

Well I find it odd that even though Jesus supposedly existed the only writings we have about him are recorded in the Bible. You would think that ancient historians living around the Mediterranean area (there are many, we have their writings) would have recorded something about a man going around performing all these miracles that supposedly happened. Yet we have none. Nay, I dare say that there is no substantial historical information to adequately back up the existence of Jesus Christ other than the Bible. Keep in mind that this is the same book that says a senior citizen with no engineering background built a ship with his bare hands larger than any ship that would be made for the next 2000 years and somehow got 2 of every animal on this earth to board it. And he lived to be 350 years old. Oh, but wait that was an eyewitness account, wasn't it? So it must be true! It amazes me how little critical thinking people have. And where are you getting this information that Carbon-14 dating is inaccurate? Are Christian websites telling you this? I suggest you do a little digging and research the origins of your religion, you may just be surprised. Christianity has more holes in it than Evolution does. Personally I went to private Christian school from kindergarten all the way through high school. Chances are know more about the Bible than you do. My suggestion is to do what I did and do some objective research and look at the origins of Christianity, the time in which these stories were created (because you can see huge changes in god and the way he operates due to different societal values and culture at the time), and then do some research on evolution and science and see which one is more accurate. Personally, I'd rather believe a scientist who tells me that I'll drown if I jump into open ocean rather than a man who tells me it'll be okay because he has an eyewitness account of a man walking on water. But then again, it is easier to just believe a great wizard in the sky did it.

[rablen49]

Are you even literate? Perhaps you should request a dictionary and/or a thesaurus for Christmas. And lessons on how to use them. I happen to be a historian (and I'm very familiar with Roman Empire history), and a student of global religion (and I'm very familiar with Western religious doctrine and the history thereof). From your extremely intelligent posting, it sounds as though you know everything. Is that true? Have you accrued degrees in physics, astronomy, cosmology, geology, and/or history? If so, it seems odd that you cannot employ the English language fluently enough to sound like anything other than a wannabe-rapper-gangstah-mindless jesus freak *******.

Just out of curiosity, which one are you, exactly? By the way, I'm sorry if I used too many multi-syllabic words.

Can you pronounce any of the words that I used? If so, you can reach me at [e-mail]. I teach English and History at the college level.

Can you pronounce the word 'evidence'? You may not have heard it before while you were studying so assiduously for your many degrees.

[Cyber998]

Christianity (like all religions) is just another social control mechanism (after all, the bible was compiled by a Roman Emperor during a period of civil unrest). One which was created before the discovery of Dinosaur fossils (and for that matter: the fact the earth isn't flat, the center of solar system, not to mention: advances in evolutionary biology, plate tectonic theory, human biology etc. which all contradict the bible) which is why such facts don't appear in it.

How some people can still be tricked into believing in superstitious religions is evidence of just how susceptible to social conditioning the human mind really is!

[killiangeeslin]

Exuse me sir the new testament has been proven to be historically reliable why? because they had EYE WITENESSES. wait i dont think anyone witnessed evolution so exuse me the Bible is very true and not propaganda!

[edubrul]

I've been telling by university biology students for years that this was soon to be possible. Go for it!!! Next stop, chimps into humans!! And I hope I'm still alive to see it reported.

[yarnplay]

To borrow a quote from the Jurassic Park Movie:

Just because you can, doesn't mean you should. There are consequences for reckless science.

[anti-global3]

We should make the most vicious man eating thing we can come up with and release them in China. Those thieving dogs deserve to be consumed alive.

[afmcalax]

Actually if you believe the right-wing conservatives this would be reversing creationism ... boy would they be in big trouble with the big guy (lol)

[killiangeeslin]

You are forgetting one thing how would organic material stay alive on a dead creature for millions of years? where is the science in that. This proves the earth is only 6,000- 10,000 years old smartie