A handbag is promoted as the "world's first T. rex leather product." But scientists are questioning its authenticity.
In early April, the Artis Zoo Museum in Amsterdam unveiled a handbag alongside a massive dinosaur skeleton — one made of "lab-grown T. rex leather."
Polish fashion label Enfin Leve designed the bag as part of its line of experimental clothing. But it was the material, not the design, that drew the most attention. "It has a character unlike anything we've handled. Dense, primal, operating on its own logic," the label wrote on social media. The company plans to auction the handbag on June 11 in Paris.
But what exactly do they mean by "T. rex leather"?
Dinosaurs died out about 66 million years ago. In the 1990s, the film "Jurassic Park" sparked a global fascination with dinosaurs and fueled speculation about whether scientists could clone them. Researchers have consistently said no: The DNA breaks down over time.
