Dinosaur research backs link to birds

From the AP via Yahoo courtesy of AlterNet:

So, when she was able to recover soft tissue from a T. rex bone found in Montana in 2003 she was surprised, Schweitzer said.

And now, researchers led by John M. Asara of Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston have been able to analyze proteins from that bone.

The genetic code that directs the development of living things is the DNA, but that is more fragile and they didn't find that.

"But proteins are coded from the DNA, they're kind of like first cousins," Schweitzer said

What Asara's team found was collagen, a type of fibrous connective tissue that is a major component of bone. And the closest match in creatures alive today was collagen from chicken bones.

Click here for the rest.

Usually missing from mainstream coverage of the seemingly endless evolution-creation "controversy" is that scientists continue to do their jobs. That is, while lame-brained creationists continue to assert the most wild absurdities, the scientific evidence for evolution, long ago established as unassailable fact, continues to mount, year after year. Just last December, scientists announced that they had found very strong evidence about groups of human beings developing lactose tolerance in Africa somewhere between three and seven thousand years ago, yet another smoking gun in favor of evolution. And now we've come close to confirming that dinosaurs evolved into birds. Really, the big news isn't that we're drowning in hard proof of evolution as an important biological principal: it's that there is no such thing as a controversy over evolution.

No controversy. Just a bunch of religious assholes insisting that the earth is flat. Fuckers.

$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$