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Can we clone dinosaurs from DNA?

Paleontologists and molecular biologists have now searched for a couple of decades to find and replicate DNA from some non-avian dinosaur fossil. But to date, no such unequivocally confirmed results have been obtained, either from fossil bones or teeth preserved in sediments or from some fossil preserved in amber, as was done in Jurassic Park.

Decay and contamination

To successfully isolate DNA from a long-extinct dinosaur, let alone clone one, scientists would have to overcome numerous serious challenges, including contamination and deterioration of the original DNA. This is because DNA begins to deteriorate and break down into small molecular fragments soon after an organism dies and begins to decay, and when that happens, contamination from external sources, such as organic compounds in the soil or groundwater, quickly follows.

A billion base pairs

The DNA molecule is composed of subunits, called base pairs, and each pair forms part of the genetic code. In our bodies, each cell contains a billion base pairs, so replicating each in the proper order for an extinct dinosaur would be tremendously difficult. In terms of an analogy, think of the Manhattan phone book. It has an alphabetical order and a specific content, including names and addresses. If that phone book were shredded into millions of tiny pieces of varying lengths, as happens to DNA when it deteriorates, how would you go about reassembling the original book? Names might be missing, but you would not know which ones. These are the kinds of problems that face scientists trying to reconstruct DNA from extinct animals.
Eventually, scientists probably will be able to confirm the presence of DNA from some non-avian dinosaur. But at present, we cannot create carbon copies of organisms that are alive today, even if we have the entire genome in its correct order. Thus, isolating and organizing the decayed DNA from a long-extinct, non-avian dinosaur, even if we found some, would be impossible.

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  • starky seedling style avatar for user Muhammad Bin Fasial
    Can we achieve this goal in the future?
    (5 votes)
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  • aqualine seed style avatar for user Andrea Stanton
    When did the dinousars die?
    (5 votes)
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    • leafers tree style avatar for user Logan Weekes
      Almost all the dinosaurs, except birds, died about 65.5 million years ago. Some scientists say they died because of a giant meteorite hit the earth, at the Yucatan peninsula, sent ash into the air, blocking the sun out for many months, maybe even years, killing all the plants, which then killed the plant eating dinosaurs, which then killed all the meat eating dinosaurs. Some said it was volcanic eruptions. Some said that it was a plague. Others said that early mammals ate the eggs before they could hatch. One even said that they died of boredom. Someone even threw out that the small dinosaurs drowned themselves in larger dinosaurs' poop! How crazy is that? Well, whatever the reason, they all, except birds, went extinct at about 65.5 million years ago.
      (2 votes)
  • starky seedling style avatar for user Corrie Schmit
    Could they make a clone of a non-extinct animal, like a deer, or a bunny?
    (3 votes)
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  • starky tree style avatar for user NickolasK2021
    Even if they can how will they get the embro if the wanted to make somthing like Jurassic Park?
    (1 vote)
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    • starky tree style avatar for user CDLanda
      Well, there is an easier way and that is finding mosquitos concealed in amber because mosquitoes actually fed on dinosaurs blood and the blood contains the DNA of a dinosaur. And by using genetics with the blood of dinosaurs from the mosquitoes, you got the embryo and after that, you have the embryo.
      (1 vote)
  • piceratops tree style avatar for user Maverick Farr
    In Jurassic Park they said that the mosquitos take DNA from the blood from the dinosuars and they sometimes get stuck in the amber. We know that blood contains a lot of DNA in it. Let's say a scientists found a fossilized mosquito in some amber, and it contained dinosaur DNA. Wouldn't the dried amber pack the DNA from the blood and make it so the DNA couldn't escape?
    (2 votes)
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    • starky tree style avatar for user Bernardo
      Something similar has been tried with no success http://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0073150 they tried to get the DNA of bees from copal (resin on its way to becoming amber). The DNA of the bees was not preserved.

      The blood inside a mosquito is even less likely to survive as the mosquito will be digesting the blood and destroying the DNA until it dies, then the DNA has to survive a much longer time....

      I won't say it's impossible, some scientist may get incredibly lucky and who knows what new techniques may do, but I wouldn't count on it.
      (3 votes)
  • piceratops tree style avatar for user onyensohjr
    if they find a dodos DNA but it is not complete, why cant they put pigeon DNA in the missing parts? i said pigeon not because it is random, but because a dodo bird is more related to a pigeon than any other bird
    (2 votes)
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    • leaf blue style avatar for user Brayden Garner
      The reason this does not work is that there is no way of knowing which part of the genome you have. If I give you 4 characters in sequence "f th", you would not be able to just fill-in all of the other characters in the sentence with some from another sentence. Well, you could, but it would not get you anything close to what the original complete sentence was.
      (1 vote)
  • mr pants teal style avatar for user Anthony Natoli
    In the fourth paragraph, it says "But at present, we cannot create carbon copies of organisms that are alive today, even if we have the entire genome in its correct order", which seems to say A) you need the entire mapped genome to do cloning, and B) cloning cannot be done. Both of such conclusions from that paragraph are wrong ... cloning IS possible and has been done even without a fully mapped genome. See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dolly_(sheep)
    (2 votes)
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