Since you were a kid, you've been absolutely fascinated with dinosaurs.
By age 5, you knew all the names of the saurischians and ornithischians
and pointed out with glee every time someone mistakenly referred to Apatosaurus
as Brontosaurus. (You must have seen the Jurassic Park movie
a dozen times!). Your favorite dinosaur is Suchomimus, first described
in 1998 by Paul Sereno based on his discoveries in northwest Africa. Since
graduating from Fullam in 2003 (you got an A+ in Geo 115), you've become
an expert on the detection and extraction of dinosaur DNA. The Ph.D. dissertation
you completed a few years ago at a prestigious university on that very
topic has placed you at the forefront of research on dinosaur cloning.
Your research shows that there are more sites of potential DNA fossilized
in dinosaur bones and blood proteins than most scientists realize, particularly
bone beds like those in Montana where thousands of hadrosaurs were asphyxiated
suddenly by ashfall during a volcanic eruption. The time is ripe for cloning
dinosaurs--imagine the research possibilities! Here would be the chance
to view evolution first hand and to observe the locomotory styles, physiology,
and reproductive behaviors of dinosaurs that scientists have debated for
centuries. Who could turn down the opportunity to glimpse into the Earth's
past and to undo the damage caused by the asteroid 66 million years ago?
If you think about it, we (humans) aren't even supposed to be here--many
scientists believe that if an asteroid hadn't wiped out the dinosaurs
they'd still be the ruling forms of life in terrestrial environments.
The best plan is for you to support dinosaur cloning and try to win a
research grant to study the clones. Fame, fortune, and a pet dino might
surely follow!
|
