The following essay is reprinted with permission from The Conversation, an online publication covering the latest research.
We began by working out the most likely genomic structure of the bird-turtle ancestor, before tracing any changes that occurred from then to the present day. This lineage includes the emergence of dinosaurs and pterosaurs ~240 million years ago, passing through the theropod dinosaurs and ends with birds.
Second, even if we could extract dino DNA, it would be chopped up into millions of tiny pieces and we would have little clue as to how these pieces should be organised. It would be like trying to do the world’s hardest jigsaw puzzle with no idea what the picture looks like or whether there are any missing pieces.
In short, you need the perfect dino egg and all the complex chemistry contained within it. In the book, they generate artificial eggs, in the films they use ostrich eggs. Neither would work, you can’t put chicken DNA inside an ostrich egg and hope to get a chicken . The same would be true of a Velociraptor.
This was a really interesting read
🥲
Why don't we resurrect something really useful and needed like respect and moral values ?
Let’s first try to save the animals that are currently almost extinct!
We might be able to use modern-day birds' DNA to resurrect dinosaurs. Just dig deeper, it's got to be there somewhere.
I thought you might be referring to Dick Cheney. 😦
There is no need to do that
Let’s hope it stays that way! I don’t need monster-sized bugs in my life, thank you very much.
Even if the technology would allow it wouldn’t the toxicity of the current atmosphere be lethal to any Dino-clone?
This isn't exactly a bad thing. We don't need to introduce any new/old apex predators. I mean look at what the domestic cat has done to Hawaiis bird population.
When do you become a wet blanket, Sciam?!