Re: Dinosaur-Turkey DNA

[Phillip Bigelow <bh162@scn.org>]

> in this week's Science.  
> "Dinos and Turkeys: Connected by DNA?" by Constance Holden."
<major snip>

> "The DNA match with turkeys caused the suspicious researchers to check
> for possible contamination through turkey sandwiches, etc., in the lab and
> the field but found no evidence of this."



Another press report probably paraphrased the research team by calling it
a "near perfect match with a turkey"....hmmmm. 

I wonder how close to the surface that Triceratops was when parts of it
were found?  The first thing I thought of was possible modern
contamination via bird poo-contaminated surface water.  I don't know about
North Dakota, but in eastern Montana there are a LOT of galliformes birds
(turkeys, sharp-tailed grouse, prairy chickens) running around the
countryside and pooping up a storm.  And faecal material usually contains
a few shed intestinal cells from its host. 

Just a thought.  Interesting research though.  Would be great if their
dino mtDNA study holds up to further scrutiny. 

                  <pb>