Could We Resurrect A Dinosaur From Preserved DNA

Bringing back extinct species is a real possibility. In fact, scientists have announced a plan to clone woolly mammoths using remains preserved in the Siberian permafrost.

They hope to create mammoth embryos by replacing the nuclei of elephant egg cells with preserved mammoth nuclei, then implanting those embryos in elephants.

The outlook for dinosaur cloning isn’t so good however. New research says DNA has a ha If-life of only 521 years, and that it would break down completely within 6.8 million years. Dinosaurs died out over 65 million years ago, meaning their DNA is long gone.

A possible alternative is to assemble the genetic code of a dinosaur-like animal with a computer, using ancient, ‘switched off’ dinosaur genes that still exist in the DNA of possible dinosaur descendants, such as birds. We don’t have the necessary technology today, but scientists haven’t ruled out this possibility.