Jurassic Park, is it possible?

What do you guys think? If we are able to successfully gather complete DNA from prehistoric creatures do you think eventually we will be able to clone them?

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Deep inside the dusty university store room, three scientists struggle to lift a huge fossilised bone.

It is from the leg of a dinosaur.

For many years, this chunky specimen has languished cryptically on a shelf.

Interesting but useless — a forgotten relic of a lost age.

Now, with hammer and chisel poised, the academics from Montana State University in America gather round.

They are about to shatter this rare vestige of the past.

Why would they do such a thing?
Dinosaurs from When Dinosaurs Roamed

Lost age: Scientists now believe it is possible to resurrect the dinosaur after the discovery of DNA relics in the wings and beaks of regular chickens

The answer is that they believe that this single fragment of a beast which stalked the earth untold millions of years ago could hold the key which will unlock the secrets of the dinosaurs.

Extraordinarily, they contend that it could lead to a real life Jurassic Park, where dinosaurs are once again unleashed on the world by scientists.

For just like in the hit Steven Spielberg movie, these men and women are intent on cracking the genetic code of the dinosaurs and opening the possibility of bringing them back to life.

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[edit on 7/11/08 by JAK]

reply to post by zombies


They have just finished completing the DNA map of the Woolly Mammoth, and some state they will be able to clone and or create the creatures in 10 to 20 years, possibly sooner (unless they already have in some laboratory). I think the possibility of cloning dinosaurs is getting more probable with the passing of each year. The question won't be can we, but should we?

i think that today, it would be impossible to clone/grow creatures to the size that we find them fossilized. Atmospheric conditions do not and will not support such growth for any being on earth today as it once did.

Originally posted by Methuselah
i think that today, it would be impossible to clone/grow creatures to the size that we find them fossilized. Atmospheric conditions do not and will not support such growth for any being on earth today as it once did.

If your referring to Meganeura and how it would require a higher oxygen content than you would be correct. However in the case of say Woolly Mammoths or Dinosaurs from say the Jurassic era then atmosphere wouldn't be such a problem. The big kicker is getting the humidity levels right and even then there are areas (such as at the equator) where Dinosaurs could live in my estimation. Certainly not as far widespread an area as they used to live in but nonetheless viable.

It does seem quite possible they've supposedly cloned sheep and the like, I suppose if you have ample cells/stem cells it could work

But of course learning from Jurassic Park instead of a lysine contingency fit the dinosaurs with tiny explosive devices in their brains, and pack the staff with enough guns to take out anything that might escape.

It would take many many generations of cloning to be able to get a sample even close to the real thing...

Now, the mammoth is a bit different, because very similar creatures roam the earth today, so you could probably get the "look" a lot sooner. It wouldn't be a mammoth, but close.

The inherent problem with this is that we'd have to use existing animals' eggs to create the dinosaur, so there is always a quality of hybridization.

Exact replicas? Maybe not never but not for a very, very long time.

it is very risky to bring back an extinct animal, because that animal could destroy another animal inturn, thats why we have to be careful not to damage the ecosystem.

i think that today, it would be impossible to clone/grow creatures to the size that we find them fossilized. Atmospheric conditions do not and will not support such growth for any being on earth today as it once did.

Creating the right conditions would be child's play (in a controlled exhibit, for example) compared to the feat of cloning a dino....

However, there is one line of that movie that should really be the big red flag...."How could you possibly know everything about an extinct ecosystem?"

You'd likely go through a few cloned dinos dying before you got the food/plants right, etc. Not only are the dinos extinct, but nearly everything in their environment is too. That will all have to be recreated or appropriate substitues found, and fossil info may be inadequate for that....