So did scientists discover ‘soft tissue’ from a T-Rex that died 68 million years ago? And when am I going to get my pet dinosaur?
TPM Reader DM takes up the discussion after the earlier cold water from TPM Reader DF …
I have to take issue with a couple things that DF said in the blurb you posted in the editor’s blog. I am a micropaleontolgist/paleoclimatologist, so like DF, I don’t have a dog in this fight, to use another taxonomically challenged metaphor. But I have also followed this particular story since the original articles, and have found the back and forth rather fascinating. I agree completely with DF that the latest study is not a confirmation, as we desperately need an outside group to replicate these results. But there are a couple things to keep in mind here.
Some people are no fun. Like TPM Reader DF, who’s throwing some cold water on the idea that Jurassic Park may be opening any time in the next few years. More seriously, he points out that there are still some shortcomings in the research by the team who says they’ve isolated preserved soft tissue from a T-Rex that died 68 million years ago …
I am a vertebrate paleontologist and I am generally familiar with this work. I think your article stating that the presence of soft tissues in the T. rex specimen has been confirmed is a bit too accepting. I would say that in science, as in many other areas of academia, stating that something has been confirmed implies that a research group other than that which first proposed an idea or interpretation has replicated the finding or otherwise corroborated the finding. In this case, the story is about the same research group that has been arguing for the preservation of soft tissue all along, so it does not really count as confirmation as such.
On World AIDS Day, Paul Farmer reflects on what we’ve learned about the disease — and about ourselves.
