Can people make dinosaurs

Answer 1

No.

In the film Jurassic Park, dinosaurs were cloned from DNA found in dinosaur blood. This blood was obtained from the stomachs of mosquitos that had bitten the dinosaurs and who themselves died and were preserved in amber.

The facts behind this are quite plausible. Mosquitos arefound in amber. They will have sucked the blood from dinosaurs. Also, the DNA in that blood should contain the blueprint for making a new dinosaur.

However, despite the plausibility of the story, modern technology has not yet reached the stage that dinosaurs can be cloned from such a source. For one thing DNA breaks down after a while and so any found in mosquitos would be fragments rather than the whole code for a dinosaur. Also, a mixture of dinosaur blood DNA fragments (which would have to be sorted out somehow)would be there rather than, in the film, a neat package of, say, T-Rex DNA complete.

However, that said, genetic science is moving and improving very quickly, and genetic engineering is advancing daily. There is already talk of resurrecting the wooly mammoth from mammoth DNA found preserved a body of a mammoth in polar ice. Mammoths are related to the elephant and believed to be docile and tameable (they were used as beasts of burden by prehistoric man according to many cave paintings). This is to be done by in-vitro fertilization of an elephant ovum with mammoth DNA and using a cow elephant to give birth. But here we are dealing with DNA just tens of thousands of years old. With dinosaurs we are talking of tens of millions of years old DNA - and that creates an even bigger problem because of DNA's shelf-life.

However, despite the fact that we cannot make dinosaurs at the moment, never say never. As genetic engineering research improves, watch this space....

And if a real-life Jurassic Park ever opens in my lifetime, I'll be getting one of the first tickets.