While dinosaur DNA in fossils has never been found, proteins and soft tissues have been discovered. From this, scientists have been able to deduce the DNA code. By doing this, scientists have now discovered parts of certain dinosaur genomes.
Genome sizes[]
Professor Chris Organ of the Harvard University and his colleagues have discovered that the size of bone cells in modern vertebrates correlates with the size of their genome. In fossilized bones, the holes where the bone cells resided during life are still present. By looking at the small holes, Chris and his colleagues have been able to estimate the genome sizes of several sauropods, theropods, ornithischians and pterosaurs (Sources 1).
Dinosaur DNA sequences[]
Tyrannosaurus rex[]
Only a very small fraction of the Tyrannosaurus genome has been discovered. However, these could be the very first steps towards cloning a dinosaur.
Collagen, type |, alpha 1:
GGNGCNACNGGNGCNCCNGGNATHGCNGGNGCNCCNGGNTTYCCNGGNGCNMGNGG
NGCNCCNGGNCCNCARGGNCCNWSNGGNGCNCCNGGNCCNAAR
GGNGTNCARGGNCCNCCNGGNCCNCARGGNCCNMG
GGNWSNGCNGGNCCNCCNGGNGCNACNGGNTTYCCNGGNGCNGCNGGNMG
GGNGTNGTNGGNYTNCCNGGNCARMGN
Collagen, type |, alpha 2:
GGNYTNCCNGGNGARWSNGGNGCNGTNGGNCCNGCNGGNCCNATHGGNWSNMGN
Collagen, type ||, alpha 1:
GGNYTNGTNGGNGCNCCNGGNYTNMGNGGNYTNCCNGGNAAR
Sources[]
1. http://jurassicpark.wikia.com/wiki/Dinosaur_DNA, all of the information on that page comes from MismeretMonk AKA Bastiaan Koster, a biologist in training. The wiki in turn has links to scientific papers, confirming the information on this page.