Gah! You know some mad scientist out there is going to want to clone it. That would be bad.
A pregnant Tyrannosaurus rex has been found, shedding light on the evolution of egg-laying as well as on gender differences in the dinosaur.
The remains also could contain the holy grail of all dinosaur fossils: DNA.
“Yes, it’s possible,” Lindsay Zanno told Discovery News, referring to genetic material that may be present in this as well as similar dinosaur finds. “We have some evidence that fragments of DNA may be preserved in dinosaur fossils, but this remains to be tested further.”
What has been confirmed so far is that the T. rex, which was found in Montana and dates to 68 million years ago, retained medullary bone that reveals the individual was pregnant. Medullary bone is only present in female living dinosaurs, i.e. birds, just before and during egg laying. It’s this type of bone that could retain preserved DNA…
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