click to enlarge Genetic sequencing show link of T. rex with birds and mastadons with elephants. (Source: National Science Foundation)

Genetic sequencing, of a 68-million-year-old Tyrannosaurus rex protein from the dinosaur’s femur confirms that T. rex shares a common ancestry with chickens, ostriches, and to a lesser extent, alligators. The dinosaur protein was extracted from a fossil T. rex femur discovered in 2003 by paleontologist John Horner of the Museum of the Rockies. The new research results, published in Science, represent the first use of molecular data to place a non-avian dinosaur in a phylogenetic tree, a “tree of life,” that traces the evolution of species.

This article was published in Drug Discovery & Development magazine: Vol. 11, No. 5, May, 2008, pp. 40.