When you buy through nexus on our site , we may earn an affiliate commission . Here ’s how it work .
A partnership of companies has herald that it plans to make luxury fashion accessory out ofTyrannosaurus rex"leather " — but researchers say it wo n’t be the real sight .
TheT. rexleather will be farm in a science lab and is intended to be an " eco - friendly " and " cruelty - innocent " choice to traditional leather , according to astatementreleased by creative agency VML , one of the three fellowship involve .
The companies want to make luxury goods out of T. rex skin-inspired material. The bag in this image is crocodile leather.
The partnership , which also include biotechnology companies Lab - Grown Leather Ltd and The Organoid Company , plans to ground its new material on fossilizedT. rexcollagen , a mutual protein that provides social organisation to skin and other tissue . It will then make the textile by engineering electric cell with synthetic , or artificially created , DNA .
However , dinosaur expert told Live Science that cause realT. rexleather would ask desoxyribonucleic acid from the nonextant predator , and there is n’t any . Furthermore , paleontologists have only foundT. rexcollagen in bone , not skin , and skin is the basis for leather .
Thomas Holtz , Jr. , a vertebrate paleontologist at the University of Maryland , told Live Science that he thought theT. rexleather claim was " misleading " after reading the announcement . " What this fellowship is doing seems to be fantasy , " Holtz say in an email .
Live Science approached VML for comment , but it did n’t leave one .
Related:‘Dispiriting and exasperate ' : The world ’s super rich are buy up T. king fossil and it ’s hampering enquiry
DNA start to crumble as before long as an fauna die . Some fragments might survive in the environment for up to a few million years , but investigator have n’t found any deoxyribonucleic acid from the age of dinosaur . Theoldest keep up DNAon disc — from an ancient Greenland ecosystem that include mastodons — is about 2 million years sure-enough , andT. rexwent extinctwith the eternal rest of non - avian dinosaurs 66 million years ago .
" We have NO preserved tyrannosaurid DNA ( indeed , not Mesozoic dinosaur deoxyribonucleic acid successiveness ) , so there are noT. rexgenes , " Holtz said .
Hotz also noted that researcher do n’t have good tyrannosaurid skin sample , because soft tissues like skin are rarely preserved in fossils . Without good sample distribution , researchers do n’t fuck that much about whatT. rexskin was like .
" There are a smattering of [ tyrannosaurid skin ] impressions , but that does n’t let us know what the interior tissue was like , " Holtz tell .
Dinosaur collagen
The upcomingT. rex - theme leather will be based onT. rexcollagen , of which there is some in the fossil criminal record . Scientists used to think that all constituent components of an animal were destroyed during fossilization . However , in recent years , they’veidentified collagenin some dinosaur bones . The collagen is preserved through acomplex chemical process , and not all of it survives . The researcher Live Science spoke to , who are not involved in the creation of the leather , were skeptical about the use ofT. rexcollagen for this Modern fabric .
Thomas Carr , an associate professor of biological science at Carthage College and director of the Carthage Institute of Paleontology in Wisconsin , said that researcher ' agreement ofT. rexcollagen is incomplete because the fossilizedpolypeptides — the chains of amino window pane that make up collagen — are highly fragmented .
" There really is n’t much of a template to form from that could accurately reconstruct a collagen molecule that is specific toT. rex , " Carr told Live Science . " secondly , collagens are pretty generic molecule across all animals and so I ’d be very surprised if there was a specie - specific succession that differentiatedT. rex — or any dinosaur — from their close life congenator . "
— ' If it were n’t for that asteroid , they might still divvy up this planet ' : Dinosaurs were n’t destine before the asteroid bang , new study suggests
— What was the fastest dinosaur ?
— Trove of dinosaur footprints reveal Jurassic enigma on Isle of Skye where would - be Scottish business leader Bonnie Prince Charlie escaped
The new laboratory - grown leather is n’t just about extinct dinosaur ; it ’s also about making the luxury materials industry more sustainable and ethical , according to the statement . The partnership claims lab - grown leather can cut the environmental impact that can play along traditional leather production , including thedeforestationassociated with rearing cattle and the harmful use of chemicals in the leather tanning process . Animals also do n’t have to be killed as part of the process .
While Carr was " extremely skeptical " about theT. rexleather claim , he articulate it is legitimate to explore laboratory - grown leather from an ethical perspective , and the partnership ’s enquiry techniques were interesting . However , he thought it would be more straightforward to focalize on living animals like oxen and crocodiles , rather than dinosaurs .
" The notion of ruthlessness - gratis animal products is a legitimate ethical avenue to explore , so I do n’t imagine it needs any exotic ' prehistorical ' twirl , " Carr tell .
You must confirm your public display name before commenting
Please logout and then login again , you will then be cue to enter your display name .
