Jurassic Park-style "rebirths" possible - but the results might be unexpected

This week, a droplet of blood from 40 million years ago was discovered “frozen in time” inside a fossilised mosquito in a riverbed in Montana - eerily similar to the plot of Jurassic Park.

'It makes the film feel more real,' said tech site Gizmodo. Meanwhile, researchers in the Himalayas analysed hair samples of an unknown bear - which might be the elusive Yeti.

Scientists could not create a Jurassic Park. Where dinosaurs are concerned, the answer is no - DNA cannot survive in fossil remains, or in insects in amber. But a Neolithic Park - recreating beasts from 10,000 years ago may well be possible - due to frozen animals found in mountainous and cold regions.

Frozen remnants of other extinct beasts are already being used in attempts to rebuild long-extinct animals - such as mammoths, giant sloths and sabre-toothed tigers. 

The technology is there - or very nearly - but the resulting “rebirths” might create creatures with a sort of “identity crisis”, one scientist has warned.

Read on

Egg-Laying Mammal: Scientists Discover That for Australia the Long-Beaked Echidna May Not Be a Thing of the Past

Jan. 2, 2013 — The western long-beaked echidna, one of the world's five egg-laying species of mammal, became extinct in Australia thousands of years ago…or did it? Smithsonian scientists and colleagues have found evidence suggesting that not only did these animals survive in Australia far longer than previously thought, but that they may very well still exist in parts of the country today.

The team's findings are published in the Dec. 28, 2012 issue of the journal ZooKeys.

With a small and declining population confined to the Indonesian portion of the island of New Guinea, the western long-beaked echidna (Zaglossus bruijnii) is listed as "Critically Endangered" on the International Union for Conservation of Nature's Red List of Threatened Species. It is also considered extinct in Australia, where fossil remains from the Pleistocene epoch demonstrate that it did occur there tens of thousands of years ago. Ancient Aboriginal rock art also supports the species' former presence in Australia. However, no modern record from Australia was known to exist until scientists took a closer look at one particular specimen stored in cabinets in the collections of the Natural History Museum in London. Previously overlooked, the specimen's information showed that it was collected from the wild in northwestern Australia in 1901―thousands of years after they were thought to have gone extinct there.

Continued:  http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2013/01/130102140439.htm

Researchers Find First Evidence of Ice Age Wolves in Nevada

Dec. 13, 2012 — A University of Nevada, Las Vegas research team recently unearthed fossil remains from an extinct wolf species in a wash northwest of Las Vegas, revealing the first evidence that the Ice Age mammal once lived in Nevada.

The metapodial, or foot bone, was uncovered late last year by UNLV geologist Josh Bonde during a survey of the Upper Las Vegas Wash. They have now confirmed that the bone comes from a dire wolf.

The discovery site is near the proposed Tule Springs Fossil Beds National Monument, a fossil-rich area known for its diversity and abundance of Ice Age animal remains. Scientists estimate the fossil to be 10,000 to 15,000 years old during the Late Pleistocene period.

"Dire wolves are known to have lived in almost all of North America south of Canada, but their historical presence in Nevada has been absent until now," said Bonde, a UNLV geology professor. He was a Ph.D. student at the university when he discovered the bone.

"The Tule Springs area has turned up many species, but it's exciting to fill in another part of the map for this animal and reveal a bit more about the Ice Age ecosystem in Southern Nevada."

Continued:  http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/12/121213181107.htm