'It's mind-boggling to lie in the desert next to a femur that's two metres long and imagine the creature that was attached.” kenlacovara talks to REWIREDGreen about the outsized impact humans have had on Earth despite our brief existence on it
His lab is also investigating the makeup of the bones and applying medical techniques to identify molecular traces of blood and tissue. For years, researchers believed fossils were mineralised bone. In fact, they carry organic remnants too, Lacovara says. Pioneering research by palaeontologist Mary Schweitzer at
relies on antibodies usually applied to birds to detect organic traces in bone. Because birds are close descendants of dinosaurs, antibodies that would ordinarily bind to their proteins can recognise ancient proteins too.With sequencing, hereditary information contained in those proteins can be deciphered, which may help palaeontologists situate a specimen in the family tree, and even identify a species. "What we're looking at is barcodes on fossils," Lacovara says.
Lacovara's emphasis on accessible science is embodied in the Edelman Fossil Park, which he runs at Rowan University. The 26-hectare plot rests in an old quarry in New Jersey and contains a rich deposit of fossils from the Cretaceous period. The park is run as an educational dig site, where students can take guided tours with Lacovara to look for fossils.
If Lacovara can prove this to be case, Edelman Fossil Park will be the only place for visitors to view creatures killed on that calamitous day. This year, he hopes to have an answer to his theory, which could reveal unknown details about dinosaurs' demise. Despite palaeontologists' obsession with the past, it's the future they're concerned about. "If we want to understand how the biosphere responds to climate change, that data is in the past.
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