When it roamed the Earth 80 million years ago, a 40-foot-long Tyrannosaurus rex was one of nature’s most terrifying prospects. Soon, it could be a purse.
A group of researchers and bio-engineers in the U.K. say they’re working to produce high-end clutches and totes with T. rex skin grown from fossilized remains of the ancient carnivore.
The team is seeking to grow sustainable leather using collagen from the beast sometimes known as the King of the Dinosaurs that last lived 68 million years ago in North America and Asia. If successful, the project will be the first example of leather developed from an extinct species.
The project’s developers say the lab-grown material will be fully biodegradable and structurally identical to traditional leather. It will also be “innovative and ethically sound,” Che Connon, professor of tissue engineering at Newcastle University, said in a statement.
Connon also works for biotechnology company Lab-Grown Leather, which is developing the project with Dutch creative agency VML and genomic engineering firm The Organoid Company.
“We’re unlocking the potential to engineer leather from prehistoric species, starting with the formidable T-Rex,” added Connon, who is one of the project’s leaders.
Connon and his colleagues may be eyeing the fashion industry — market data provider Fortune Business Insights says the global $500 billion leather goods market will be worth $855 billion by 2032 — and sectors beyond, such as the automotive industry.
But experts say the chances of their achieving results anytime soon look less than likely. When they do commercially produce lab-grown T. rex leather, it will be expensive.
The “gimmick” is at a “very early stage,” said Tom Ellis, professor of synthetic genome engineering at Imperial College London. “I doubt that our knowledge of dinosaur evolution is good enough to be able to design a collagen gene specifically from T. rex.”
Producing real T. rex leather is “very far-fetched,” added Ellis, who explained that the properties of any collagen that results from the project are likely to be similar to that of a cow or a chicken.
That means any ensuing products will look and feel like any other alternative leather, Ellis said. “It gives them something that is at least unique and can justify a much higher price,” he said.
Scientists can, in theory, get collagen gene sequences from any animal — it is the most abundant protein in mammals, for example, — and companies such as Geltor and Modern Meadow have made leather-like materials from genetically engineered collagen, launching small batches of expensive products.
If achieved, sustainably engineered animal leather may have environmental benefits. Right now, most leather is a byproduct of the cattle industry, which is partly responsible for deforestation in places such as the Amazon. Many synthetic and vegan leathers, meanwhile, are made of fossil fuel-derived plastics that don’t biodegrade, according to World Wide Fund.
In the meantime, while scientists are preoccupied with whether they can make dinosaur purses, fashionistas have time to stop and think about whether they should buy them.
