Dinosaur Hunter Seeks More Than Just Bare Bones

From The Wall Street Journal Online
August 24, 2007

By Robert Lee Hotz

Prospecting in Montana's badlands, rock ax in hand, paleontologist Jack Horner picked up a piece of the jawbone of a dinosaur. He examined the splinter, then put it back and moved on. It wasn't the kind of bone he was looking for.

Prof. Horner is searching for something that many scientists believe no longer exists: dinosaur bones that harbor blood cells, protein and, perhaps, even DNA.

"Most people looking for dinosaurs are looking for beautiful skeletons," he says. "We are looking for information."

This summer, Prof. Horner, 61 years old, is overseeing nine field expeditions, from Montana to Mongolia, looking for specimens intended not just for museums, but also for molecular studies. For more than a decade, he has been searching for soft tissue in dinosaur bones 65 million years old or more.

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